Episcopal 

Silver 

Jubilee 


'L'l  B  R.AR.Y 

OF   THE 
U  N  IVER.SITY 

or  ILLINOIS 


LIBRARY  OF 

M.  W.  KELLY. 


I  DO  NOT  LEND. 


2279 


V- 


Z-7 

T* 


RT.  REV.  JOHN  LANCASTER  SPALDINO,  D.  D. 
Bislwp  of  Pcoria 


SOUVENIR 


of  the 


(Episcopal  ^itoer  Jubilee 


of  the 


Rt.  Rev.  J.  L.  Spalding,  D.  D, 

BISHOP  o/PEORIA 


1903 

PRESS  OF  HOLLISTER   BROTHERS 
CHICAGO 


"B 


3fntrolmctorp 

In  response  to  the  unanimous  desire  of  the  priests  of  the 
;   diocese,  a  meeting  of  the  Diocesan  Deans  was  held  early  in 
February  at  St.  Patrick's  rectory,  Peoria,  to  consider  the  man- 
ner of  celebrating  fittingly  the  Episcopal  Jubilee  of  the  Rt. 
Rev.  J.  L.  Spalding   on  May    I,    1902.     Auxiliary  Bishop 
:"  O'Reilly  was  voted  into  the  chair,  Dean  Keating  of  Ottawa 
^  elected  secretary  and  Vicar  General  Weldon  of  Bloomington 
made  treasurer.     Committees  on  various  arrangements  were 
appointed  and  ordered  to  report  to  the  general  meeting  to  be 
called  by  the  chairman.     Within  a  few  days  the  following 
letter  was  sent  to  the  priests  of  the  diocese: 

SILVER  JUBILEE  YEAR — DIOCESE  OF  PEORIA. 

Rev.  and  Dear  Father: 

On  May  the  first,  of  this  year,  Bishop  Spalding  will  cele- 
brate the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of    his    elevation  to  the 
Episcopate.     By  a  rare  and  happy  coincidence,  the  occasion 
.  will  also  commemorate  the  "Silver  Jubilee"  of  the  diocese,  and 
witness  the  consecration  of  the  Cathedral.     His  Eminence 
Cardinal  Gibbons  and  many  other  eminent  prelates  and  ec- 
j:  clesiastics  will  take  part  in  the:  celebration.     At  a  meeting 
.of  the  deans  of  the  diocese  held  recently  in  Peoria,  a  resolu- 
v  tion  to  present  to  Bishop  Spalding  a  substantial  testimonial 
J  on  his  "Jubilee  Day"  was  unanimously  adopted.    It  was  also 
moved  and  carried  that  Very  Rev.  M.  Weldon,  V.  G.,  be  made 
treasurer,  and  that  the  Auxiliary  Bishop  be  requested  to  send 
a  circular  to  the  priests  of  the  diocese,  asking  for  contribu- 
tions to  the  fund.     In  accepting  this  trust,  I  would  suggest 
that  all  subscriptions  towards  the  proposed  testimonial  be  sent 
to  the  treasurer  at  least  one  week  before  Jubilee  Day,  May  the 
first,  nineteen  hundred  and  two.     Yours  very  truly, 

P.  J.  O'REILLY,  Auxiliary  Bishop. 
Peoria,  February  28,  1902. 


At  a  subsequent  and  final  meeting  of  the  deans  all  com- 
mittees reported  and  the  details  of  the  celebration  were  agreed 
upon.  Following  the  first  Solemn  Pontifical  Mass  at  the 
newly  consecrated  Cathedral  it  was  decided  that  a  noonday 
banquet  should  be  given  in  the  recital  hall  of  Spalding  Insti- 
tute, at  which  felicitations  were  to  be  offered  the  Rt.  Rev. 
Jubilarian  by  the  distinguished  guests  and  by  representatives 
of  the  diocese.  Bishop  O'Reilly  was  appointed  to  act  as 
toastmaster  and  the  assignment  of  toasts  and  speakers  made. 
Before  adjournment  a  committee  was  empowered  to  decide 
all  questions  of  detail  that  should  not  have  been  anticipated 
and  settled  in  the  full  meeting. 

Meanwhile  Rev.  Francis  J.  O'Reilly,  rector  of  St.  Mary's 
Cathedral,  acting  under  direction  of  Bishop  Spalding,  was 
making  preparation  for  the  consecration  of  the  cathedral  and 
for  the  celebration  of  the  Golden  Jubilee  of  St.  Mary's  Parish. 
On  account  of  the  time  required  it  was  thought  best  to  have 
the  solemn  ceremony  of  consecration  performed  a  day  before 
the  other  functions  of  the  jubilee.  So  thoroughly  was  the 
work  of  preparation  accomplished  that  nothing  was  left  un- 
done to  make  the  triple  celebration  memorable. 


f  olju  iUncastrr 


When  on  May  i,  1877,  John  Lancaster  Spalding,  priest 
assistant  in  St.  Michael's  Parish,  New  York  city,  was  con- 
secrated First  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Peoria,  this  city  was 
made  the  abiding  place  of  a  vital  force  in  American  life.  The 
inheritance  of  talent  and  piety  come  to  him  from  a  sound- 
hearted,  wholesome  race,  had  been  so  largely  increased  by  his 
personal  worth  that  he  at  once  took  high  rank  in  a  distin- 
guished hierarchy. 

The  Spaldings  are  an  old  English  Catholic  family  from 
Lancashire,  where  Spalding  Abbey,  founded  in  the  middle 
ages,  still  stands  as  a  monument  to  their  early  devotedness  to 
the  church.  The  American  Spaldings  date  their  origin  in  the 
early  days  of  Lord  Baltimore.  For  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  the  numerous  branches  of  the  family  have  been  con- 
spicuously active  in  the  development  of  Maryland  and  Ken- 
tucky. No  name  shines  brighter  in  the  annals  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  America  than  that  of  Martin  John  Spalding,  Arch- 
bishop of  Baltimore. 

John  Lancaster  Spalding  was  born  in  Lebanon,  Kentucky, 
June  2,  1840.  Early  in  the  days  of  his  boyhood  he  began  to 
show  signs  of  the  priestly  vocation  and  set  about  fitting  him- 
self for  that  holy  calling.  His  preparatory  studies  finished  at 
St.  Mary's,  Kentucky,  he  went  to  Mount  St.  Mary's,  Emmits- 
burg,  and  to  Mount  St.  Mary's,  Cincinnati,  thence  to  the  Amer- 
ican College,  Louvain,  Belgium,  where  he  was  ordained  priest 
in  1863.  Among  his  classmates  at  this  institution,  which  had 
been  founded  a  short  time  before  by  his  uncle,  Archbishop 
Spalding,  was  Archbishop  Riordan  of  San  Francisco.  A  year 
then  spent  in  special  studies  in  Rome  left  him  thoroughly 
equipped  to  begin  his  life  work.  In  1865  he  entered  upon  his 
priestly  career  at  the  Cathedral  of  Louisville.  Even  at  this 
time  he  was  a  scholar  of  such  marked  attainments  that  he  was 
chosen  theologian  to  Archbishop  Blanchet  of  Oregon  at  the 
second  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore  in  1866.  With  Father 
Hecker,  the  Paulist,  and  Father  Ryan,  now  Archbishop  of 


JO  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

Philadelphia,  he  was  selected  though  but  twenty-six  years  of 
age  for  the  rare  honor  of  preaching  at  the  Council. 

His  labors,  on  his  return  to  Louisville,  included  the  found- 
ing of  a  parish  for  negroes,  which,  in  spite  of  many  difficulties, 
he  completed  and  left  in  a  flourishing  condition  after  three 
years  of  zealous  and  persistent  effort.  In  1872  death  ended 
the  strenuous  career  of  his  illustrious  uncle.  Father  Hecker, 
to  whose  keeping  the  archbishop's  papers  had  been  entrusted, 
persuaded  that  the  records  of  a  life  so  worthy  should  be  cast 
in  permanent  form,  set  about  finding  some  one  equal  to  the 
task.  His  choice  fell  upon  Father  Spalding,  who  left  his  par- 
ish in  Louisville  and  took  residence  in  the  House  of  the  Paul- 
ist  Fathers  in  New  York  in  order  to  devote  his  uninterrupted 
thought  to  this  labor  of  love. 

When  the  life  of  Archbishop  Spalding  was  published  it 
was  accepted  as  the  best  biography  in  American  Catholic  lit- 
erature. One  distinguished  critic,  Brownson,  says:  "It 
proves  the  author  an  accomplished  literary  man,  a  deep,  earn- 
est thinker,  a  learned  and  enlightened  theologian,  and  a  de- 
voted priest.  .  .  The  author  shows  a  breadth  of  view,  a 
depth  of  reflection,  a  knowledge  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
wants  of  modern  society,  of  the  dangers  of  the  country  and 
the  real  issue  of  the  hour,  that  promise  the  country  an  au- 
thor of  the  first  order,  and  to  the  church  a  distinguished 
servant." 

Father  Spalding  did  not  return  to  Kentucky,  but  resumed 
work  as  assistant  to  Father  Donnelly  at  St.  Michael's  Church, 
New  York.  A  preacher  of  rare  excellence,  he  soon  impressed 
himself  on  the  thought  of  the  city;  priests  and  people  flocked 
to  hear  the  orator  who  could  make  men  think. 

From  this  field  of  promise,  while  still  an  assistant  priest, 
he  was  called  to  another  sphere  of  activity  in  the  newly  erected 
Diocese  of  Peoria.  He  accepted  the  responsibility  and  was 
consecrated  Bishop  of  Peoria  in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  New 
York,  May  I,  1877.  Here  his  work  has  been  writ  large;  he 
that  runs  may  read.  Churches,  schools  and  charitable  insti- 
tutions have  sprung  up  everywhere;  waning  parishes  having 
waxed  strong  again;  scattered  communities  have  been  united 
into  parishes;  a  strong,  purposeful  priesthood  has  been 


John  Lancaster  Sp aiding  n 

formed,  and  all  in  a  spirit  of  such  kindly  and  masterful  leader- 
ship that  not  once  in  twenty-five  years  has  an  appeal  been 
made  against  his  judgment. 

But  a  diocese  afforded  too  narrow  a  scope  for  action.  He 
had  a  message  for  mankind.  Keen  observation  and  study  had 
convinced  him  that  Catholics  were  slow  to  understand  that 
America  meant  opportunity  for  the  church.  Most  of  them 
were  gathered  in  a  few  cities.  The  vast  numbers  of  immi- 
grants who  came  from  many  countries  of  Europe,  especially 
from  Ireland,  were  swallowed  up  in  the  large  centers  of  pop- 
ulation. For  generations  they  had  tilled  the  land  at  home  and 
could  not  suddenly  enter  another  kind  of  life  without  danger 
to  themselves  and,  perhaps,  ultimate  deterioration  for  their 
children.  With  wise  prevision  of  these  lamentable  conse- 
quences Bishop  Spalding,  in  association  with  Archbishop  Ire- 
land, established  the  Catholic  Colonization  Society  for  the  pur- 
pose of  placing  the  immigrant  farmers  on  the  fertile  prairies 
of  the  West.  It  was  a  magnificent  conception.  In  time  pros- 
perous parishes,  flourishing  dioceses  would  spring  up;  the 
church,  unhampered,  would  grow  into  vigorous  life,  and  in 
free  America  the  dream  of  centuries  would  come  true. 

Notwithstanding  the  immense  labor  and  energy  of  its  two 
great  promoters,  the  plan  did  not  wholly  succeed.  The  immi- 
grants are  still  in  the  cities ;  the  land  is  held  by  a  thriftier  race ; 
the  opportunity  is  gone  forever,  while  the  prosperity  of  the 
colonies  that  were  established  proves  the  wisdom  of  their 
founders. 

Through  a  lecture  on  "The  Higher  Education  of  the 
Priesthoood,"  delivered  at  the  Silver  Jubilee  of  the  Salesianum 
of  Milwaukee,  the  Catholic  world  was  made  aware  of  another 
grand  conception  that  had  for  some  time  been  taking  form  in 
the  mind  of  Bishop  Spalding.  In  due  season  it  was  given  ex- 
pression in  the  Catholic  University  of  America  at  Washing- 
ton. During  the  years  of  its  existence  it  has  developed  more 
and  more  into  the  ideal  seat  of  universal  knowledge  that  is  to 
be  the  intellectual  center  of  American  Catholicity.  In  many 
other  ways  has  he  shown  deep  interest  in  things  educational. 
The  comprehensive  Catholic  educational  exhibit  at  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition  in  Chicago,  was  due  to  his  breadth  of 


12  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

view  in  the  office  of  President  of  the  Board.  Spalding  In- 
stitute, a  boy's  high  school  established  in  Peoria,  will  be  a 
fitting  memorial  to  his  munificent  faith  in  education.  Bishop 
Spalding  is  by  nature  a  teacher.  The  deepest  purpose  of  his 
life  and  writings  is  to  lead  men  to  higher  life,  to,  give  em- 
phasis to  the  divine  in  man.  He  is  the  embodiment  of  his 
own  ideas.  America  has  no  finer  type  of  the  cultured  Chris- 
tian gentleman;  an  uncynical  sage,  a  thinker  unafraid,  a 
churchman  without  cant,  an  unselfish  patriot,  a  large-minded, 
genuine,  reverent  man. 

His  writings  have  the  ring  of  kindly  sincerity;  he  writes 
himself  into  books.  In  the  life  of  Archbishop  Spalding  one 
can  feel  the  throbbing  of  a  great  heart. 

"Essays  and  Reviews,"  a  reprint  of  articles  that  appeared 
in  the  Catholic  World,  is  a  volume  of  rugged  discussion  of 
church  questions,  supplemented  by  a  charming  "Essay  on  Re- 
ligion and  Art."  "The  Religious  Mission  of  the  Irish  Peo- 
ple" was  written  to  further  the  cause  of  the  Catholic  Coloniza- 
tion Society,  but  will  long  outlive  .the  occasion  that  inspired  it. 
Two  books  of  virile  verse,  "America  and  Other  Poems,"  and 
"The  Poet's  Praise"  gave  assurance  that  the  versatile  Bishop 
of  Peoria  was  a  poet.  The  assurance  has  been  made  doubly 
sure  by  the  translation,  "Songs,  Chiefly  From  the  German," 
which  has  the  rare  merit  of  recreating  both  the  body  and  the 
soul  of  the  originals,  and  by  the  illuminating  and  inspiring 
"God  and  the  Soul"  that  no  thoughtful  man  would  willingly 
let  die. 

But  thus  far  his  literary  fame  will  rest  on  his  series  of  es- 
says on  education.  In  these  four  volumes,  "Education  and  the 
Higher  Life,"  "Things  of  the  Mind,"  "Thoughts  and  Theories 
of  Life  and  Education"  and  "Opportunity  and  Other  Essays," 
there  is  the  crystallizing  in  brilliant  expression  of  his  pro- 
foundest  thought.  No  more  stirring  appeals  to  higher  man- 
hood have  been  uttered  in  these  latter  days. 

His  latest  writings,  "Religion,  Agnosticism  and  Educa- 
tion" and  "Socialism  and  Labor  and  Other  Arguments"  show 
that  the  sympathy  of  a  man  may  be  united  to  the  genius  of 
a  thinker.  At  the  beginning  of  this  new  century  Bishop  Spald- 
ing stands  prophet-like  apart  to  remind  men  of  the  nobler 
purposes  of  living. 


Of  THE 


ST.  MARY'S  CATHEDRAL 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  13 


Cfte  Consecration  of  £bt  Jftat#$  Cathedral 

[From  the  New  World.} 

St.  Mary's  Cathedral  was  consecrated  Tuesday  morning 
according  to  the  elaborate  and  impressive  form  prescribed  by 
the  Church.  The  service  began  at  6  o'clock  and  was  concluded 
at  ii  o'clock.  The  public  was  excluded  until  the  ceremony 
was  nearly  completed,  Rt.  Rev.  P.  J.  O'Reilly,  auxiliary  bishop 
of  the  Diocese  of  Peoria,  was  the  consecrator,  and  was  assisted 
by  Father  Edmund,  deacon;  Father  Cornelius,  subdeacon; 
Father  Greve,  archpriest;  Fathers  Durkin  and  O'Neill,  assist- 
ing priests,  Fathers  Sammon,  Cummings,  Fennan,  Walters, 
Otto,  Sullivan  and  Mainville. 

Promptly  at  6  o'clock  Bishop  O'Reilly  presented  himself 
at  the  chapel  of  the  cathedral  which  contained  the  relics,  be- 
fore which  candles  had  been  burning  all  night,  and  upon  en- 
tering directed  the  candles,  twelve  in  number,  and  in  scones 
against  the  walls  of  the  cathedral,  to  be  lighted. 

Going  to  the  entrance  of  the  church  the  Bishop  knelt  at 
the  door  reciting,  with  the  clergy,  the  antiphon  and  the  litanies 
of  the  saints.  After  having  laid  aside  the  crozier  and  doffing 
his  mitre  he  prayed  aloud,  and  the  prayer  being  finished,  began 
the  exorcism  of  the  water. 

Having  repeated  the  formula  prescribed  by  the  Church,  the 
Bishop  cast  the  salt  into  the  water  and  traced  the  form  of  the 
cross  above  the  vessel,  repeating:  "Be  this  salt  and  water 
mingled  together.  In  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  at  each 
name.  Then  with  an  appropriate  prayer  the  water  was  blessed 
and  the  Bishop  sprinkled  it  upon  the  surrounding  clergy  and  a 
group  of  th,e  parishioners  who  had  gathered,  as  well  as  upon 
himself,  intoning  meantime  the  Antiphon. 

While  the  choir  continued  to  chant  the  Bishop  resumed 
his  mitre  and  preceded  by  two  acolytes  bearing  lighted  tapers 
he  turned  to  the  right,  and  accompanied  by  the  assisting 
clergy  and  parishioners,  made  a  complete  circuit  of  the  church, 


14  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

sprinkling  the  upper  part  of  the  walls  and  the  ground  below 
with  the  water. 

When  the  circuit  was  complete  the  Bishop  stopped  in  front 
of  the  church  doors  again  and  laid  aside  the  mitre  and  sprink- 
ler, while  the  sacred  ministers  joined  him  in  responsive  prayer. 
Resuming  the  mitre  and  crozier,  with  the  end  of  the  latter  he 
knocked  at  the  church  door,  repeating  the  closing  stanzas  of 
the  Sixty-fourth  Psalm,  the  deacon  inside  chanting  the  re- 
sponses. For  the  third  time  the  round  of  the  church  was 
made,  the  Bishop  sprinkling  the  walls,  while  the  choir  chanted 
Benedic  Domine  domum  istam. 

Upon  returning,  the  mitre  and  sprinkler  were  put  away, 
and  taking  up  the  crozier  the  Bishop  knocked  at  the  door  for 
the  third  time,  again  chanting  the  Sixty-fourth  Psalm,  while 
the  deacon  responded.  At  the  close  Bishop  O'Reilly,  in  a 
loud  tone,  said,  "Lift  up  your  gates,  O  Princes,"  and  with 
the  crozier  knocked  on  the  door.  The  deacon  from  within 
asking,  "Who  is  this  King  of  Glory?"  The  Bishop  and  the 
clergy  respond,  "The  Lord  of  Hosts;  He  is  the  King  of 
Glory,"  adding,  "Open,  open,  open." 

Accompanied  by  the  assisting  clergy  the  Bishop  then  en- 
tered the  church,  followed  by  the  workmen  who  were  to  close 
the  sepulchre  of  relics,  and  said:  "Peace  be  to  this  house." 
The  responses  were  followed  by  the  singing  of  the  Pax 
Aeterna  by  the  choir.  Having  laid  aside  the  mitre  and 
crozier,  kneeling  before  the  faldstool  the  Bishop  intoned  the 
Veni  Creator.  To  the  concourse  of  people  who  had  gathered 
on  the  outside  as  the  door  closed  the  moment  was  full  of  im- 
pressiveness.  The  soft,  bright  sunshine  shedding  its  peaceful 
light  over  the  massive  gray  walls  seemed  to  carry  forward  the 
benediction  in  progress  inside,  and  the  chanting  of  the  priests, 
now  and  again  drowned  in  the  bursts  of  glorious  music  from 
the  organ  and  the  choir,  lifted  the  imagination  above  even  the 
glories  of  sun  and  beauties  of  the  bursting  buds  and  springing 
grass. 

In  imagination  one  could  see  the  devout  acolyte  as  he 
traced  the  form  of  the  cross  in  ashes  upon  the  church  and  the 
Bishop  in  the  center  while  the  choir  chanted  the  litanies  of  the 
saints.  Then  came  the  wonderful  canticle  of  Zacharias,  and 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  15 

the  mind's  eye  saw  the  Bishop  trace  the  letters  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  alphabets  in  the  ashes  of  the  cross. 

Following  the  elaborate  sanctification  of  the  altar,  the 
Bishop  traced  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the  center  and  in  each 
of  the  corners,  making  a  circuit  of  the  altar  seven  times, 
sprinkling  it  with  the  water  and  using  hyssop,  while  the  Mis- 
erere was  being  chanted  by  the  choir.  Then  making  the  cir- 
cuit of  the  interior  of  the  Cathedral  he  thrice  blessed  the  walls 
and  floor.  The  cement  to  be  used  in  closing  the  sepulchre  of 
relics  having  been  blessed  the  Bishop  and  the  clergy  proceeded 
to  the  chapel  where  the  relics  are  in  keeping  in  the  sacred 
casket. 

The  return  of  the  procession  with  the  relics  is  headed  by 
two  acolytes  bearing  lighted  tapers.  After  them  comes  the 
cross  bearer  and  then  follow  the  priests  bearing  the  bier  upon 
which  rests  the  casket,  while  the  thurifers  constantly  sway 
the  incense  over  and  around  it  and  the  Bishop,  fully  vested,  in- 
tones the  Antiphon. 

At  this  point  Bishop  O'Reilly  returned  to  the  door  of  the 
church,  and,  seated  upon  the  faldstool,  there  repeated  the  con- 
secration address,  after  which  Archpriest  Greve  read  two  of 
the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  concerning  any  attempt 
to  subvert  the  use  of  the  property,  and  at  the  conclusion  the 
choir  chanted  the  Erit  mihi  Dominus  while  the  Bishop  re- 
mained seated. 

The  chant  being  concluded  the  clergy  returned  to  the 
church,  where  again  the  imagination  must  picture  the  placing 
of  the  relic  bier  within  the  altar  and  the  sealing  of  the  stone 
with  the  consecrated  cement,  the  Bishop  placing  the  first 
trowel  ful  in  place  when  the  closing  stone  has  been  set  by  the 
assisting  clergy.  Again  the  Antiphon  is  chanted,  while  the 
assisting  priests  clear  away  the  last  vestige  of  mortar,  and 
then  the  Bishop  blesses  the  altar  once  more. 

It  was  now  about  10 145,  and  a  considerable  number  of  the 
parishioners  had  gathered  at  the  church.  These  were  now 
admitted,  while  the  Eighty-sixth  Psalm  was  chanted.  The 
Bishop  formed  five  crosses  of  incense  in  each  corner  and  in  the 
center  of  the  altar,  and  having  placed  wax  tapers  upon  them, 
lighted  the  latter.  While  they  were  being  consumed  he  laid 


16  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

aside  his  mitre  and  intoned  an  alleluia.  When  the  ashes 
had  been  removed  by  the  assistant  priest,  the  Mass  for  the 
dedication  of  a  church  was  celebrated,  and  the  Bishop  gave  the 
solemn  blessing  to  the  congregation. 


THE  SOLEMN  PONTIFICAL  MASS. 

[Prom  the  Peoria  Journal^ 

Right  Reverend  John  Lancaster  Spalding's  Silver  Jubilee 
as  Bishop  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Diocese  of  Peoria  is  being 
celebrated  today,  this  being  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  his 
consecration.  The  exercises  began  with  a  grand  procession 
of  the  local  and  visiting  clergy  from  Spalding  Institute  to  St. 
Mary's  Cathedral  at  9 145  this  morning,  followed  by  the  cele- 
bration of  Solemn  Pontifical  High  Mass  by  Bishop  Spalding 
at  the  cathedral,  and  the  jubilee  sermon,  preached  by  Cardinal 
Gibbons. 

No  more  ideal  day  for  the  celebration  could  have  been 
wished,  and  long  before  the  hour  set  for  the  procession  to 
move  from  Spalding  Institute,  Madison  avenue  was  thronged 
with  sightseers  from  Fayette  to  Green  streets.  Promptly  at 
9 145  the  great  entrance  door  of  the  institute  swung  back  and 
the  crossbearer  and  the  acolytes  stepped  forth  into  the  light, 
the  sun  glancing  from  the  golden  crucifix  and  reflected  by  the 
lamps  of  the  acolytes.  Behind  them  came  the  priests — two 
hundred  and  fifty  in  number — in  cassock  and  surplice,  walking 
two  by  two.  Then  followed  the  members  of  the  hierarchy, 
each  attended  by  a  chaplain,  and  finally  Cardinal  Gibbons 
with  train  bearers.  The  rich  robes  of  the  Archbishops  and 
Bishops,  in  purple  and  white  and  gold,  were  set  off  by  the 
somber  and  severe  dress  of  a  company  of  monks,  who  walked 
two  by  two,  their  heads  reverently  bowed.  The  hum  of  voices, 
and  the  gay  laughter  which  had  echoed  up  and  down  the  street 
died  away  with  the  appearance  of  the  head  of  the  procession, 
and  during  the  march  to  the  cathedral  no  sound  was  heard 
save  the  steady  tramp  of  reverend  feet. 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  17 

PONTIFICAL   HIGH   MASS. 

Crowds  assembled  at  the  cathedral  doors  long  before  the 
services  began.  Pewholders  and  those  having  tickets  entitling 
them  to  seats  in  pews  were  the  first  admitted,  and  the  large 
force  of  ushers  had  all  they  could  do  to  take  care  of  the  im- 
mense throng  who  had  admission  tickets  only.  These  were 
obliged  to  stand  till  after  the  entrance  of  the  procession. 

The  splendid  blending  of  color  in  the  banners  of  richest 
yellow,  significant  of  the  papal  power,  and  the  long  draperies 
of  bishop's  purple,  the  red,  white  and  blue  of  the  flag,  the  yards 
upon  yards  of  festooned  smilax  and  the  flower  bedecked  altars 
formed  a  fitting  setting  for  the  most  gorgeous  ceremony  ever 
witnessed  in  Peoria.  A  beautiful  picture  was  the  chancel,  the 
high  altar  ablaze  with  light,  backed  by  masses  of  lilies  and 
delicate  traceries  of  smilax.  To  the  left  the  altar  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  was  covered  with  roses  and  carnations,  all  in  pink,  and 
at  the  right  the  deep  crimson  of  roses  was  artistically  mingled 
with  the  white  of  the  lilies  on  the  altar  of  St.  Joseph. 

It  was  after  ten  when  the  acolytes  leading  the  long  pro- 
cession of  priests  entered  the  great  doors  J;o  the  inspiring 
strains  of  the  organ  and  orchestra.  After  the  long  line  of  the 
young  attendants  in  their  cassocks  of  purple  and  collars  of 
white  came  the  priests  of  the  diocese,  more  than  one  hundred 
of  them.  Following  them  entered  the  Franciscan  Fathers, 
their  plain  habits  being  the  one  dark  spot  in  the  procession, 
the  purple  of  the  robes  of  the  Bishops  and  Archbishops,  whom 
they  immediately  preceded,  looking  all  the  richer  by  contrast. 

Bishop  Spalding  entered  the  cathedral,  whose  splendid  pro- 
portions are  an  eloquent  tribute  to  some  of  the  work  the 
Bishop  has  accomplished  in  his  twenty-five  years  here,  at- 
tended by  three  priests  of  the  diocese.  These  three  attendants 
wore  chasubles  of  cloth  of  gold  and  were  striking  figures  in 
the  long  line.  At  the  last  came  Cardinal  Gibbons  robed  in  the 
brilliant  scarlet  of  his  office,  his  refined  and  intellectual  face  a 
benediction  in  itself.  It  took  some  minutes  for  the  reverend 
fathers  to  reach  their  places  in  the  chancel,  and  during  the 
interval  between  their  being  seated  and  the  beginning  of  the 
mass,  Bishop  Spalding  was  robed  for  the  celebration  of  the 


i8  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

mass.  As  he  approached  the  altar  the  choir  began  the 
Kyrie  Eleison.  After  the  singing  of  the  gospel  Cardinal  Gib- 
bons was  escorted  to  the  pulpit  by  two  of  the  priests,  where 
he  read  the  gospel  for  the  day,  before  beginning  his  eloquent 
address.  The  Cardinal's  voice  is  not  a  strong  one,  but  the 
beauty  and  clearness  of  his  tone  made  every  word  distinct  to 
the  very  limits  of  the  walls. 

THE  SERMON 

Isaias  Ix.  1-5.  "Arise,  be  enlightened,  O,  Jerusalem, 
for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon 
thee.  For  behold  darkness  shall  cover  the  earth,  and  a  mist 
the  people;  but  the  Lord  shall  arise  upon  thee,  and  his  glory 
shall  be  seen  upon  thee.  And  the  Gentiles  shall  walk  in  thy 
light,  and  kings  in  the  brightness  of  thy  rising.  Lift  up  thy 
eyes  round  about,  and  see :  all  these  are  gathered  together,  they 
are  come  to  thee;  thy  sons  shall  come  from  afar,  and  thy 
daughters  shall  rise  up  at  thy  side.  Then  shalt  thou  see,  and 
abound,  and  thy  heart  shall  wonder  and  be  enlarged,  when  the 
multitude  of  the  sea  shall  be  converted  to  thee,  the  strength 
of  the  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thee." 

In  these  words  the  great  Prophet  Isaiah  foreshadows  the 
future  expansion  and  glory  of  the  Christian  church.  Let  us 
briefly  sketch  the  history  of  this  marvelous  development. 

Let  us  transport  ourselves  in  spirit  to  the  dawn  of  the 
Christian  era,  and  let  us  stand  in  imagination  on  one  of  Pagan 
Rome's  seven  hills.  We  see  at  our  feet  the  immense  city 
teeming  with  a  population  of  about  three  millions  of  inhabi- 
tants, according  to  the  estimate  of  Gibbons.  We  observe  that 
metropolis  dotted  here  and  there  with  idolatrous  temples,  and 
niches  of  false  gods  erected  in  the  corners  of  the  streets. 
Those  people  are  given  up  to  every  species  of  idolatry.  They 
worship  the  sun  and  moon  and  stars  of  heaven.  The  seas  and 
rivers,  the  mountains  and  groves  have  their  tutelary  divinities. 
They  worship  every  striking  object  in  nature.  They  worship 
every  being  except  God  alone,  to  whom  alone  divine  homage 
is  due.  In  the  words  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  "they 
changed  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God  into  the  image  and 


UBMRV 
Of  THE 
Of 


His  EMINENCE  JAMES  CARDINAL  GIBBONS 
Archbishop  of  Baltimore 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  ip 

likeness  of  corruptible  men,  and  of  birds  and  beasts  and  creep- 
ing things,  and  they  worshipped  the  creature  instead  of  the 
Creator  who  is  blessed  for  evermore." 

Rome  was  the  focus  of  idolatry  of  the  empire.  Every  di- 
vinity that  was  adored  throughout  the  vast  dominions  of 
Rome  had  his  temple  or  his  shrine  in  the  imperial  city. 

What  I  say  of  Rome,  I  might  affirm  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  what  I  affirm  of  the  Roman  Empire,  I  could  assert  of  the 
civilized  world,  for  Rome  was  mistress  of  the  world.  Her  em- 
pire extended  into  Europe,  as  far  as  the  river  Danube;  it 
extended  into  Asia  as  far  as  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  and 
into  Africa  as  far  as  Mauritania.  The  whole  world,  with  the 
exception  of  Palestine,  was  buried  in  the  darkness  of  idolatry. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  society  when  our  Lord  appeared 
on  the  theatre  of  public  life.  He  calls  around  Him  twelve  in- 
significant men — men  without  wealth,  destitute  of  human 
learning,  men  without  the  prestige  of  fame,  men  without  po- 
litical, or  social,  or  family  influence,  men  without  any  of  the 
elements  which  are  considered  at  all  times  essential  for  the  suc- 
cess of  any  great  enterprise.  He  commands  them  to  effect  the 
most  mighty  moral  revolution  that  has  ever  occurred  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  He  commands  them  to  uproot  idolatry  from 
the  face  of  the  earth,  and  to  substitute  in  its  stead  the  worship 
of  the  one,  true,  living  God.  He  commands  them  to  eradicate 
the  most  darling  and  inveterate  passions  from  the  hearts  of 
men,  and  to  plant  in  their  stead  the  peaceful  reign  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Well  might  the  gospel  which  these  men  went  forth  to  plant, 
be  compared  to  the  little  grain  of  mustard  seed,  small  and 
imperceptible  in  the  beginning,  but  expanding  into  a  luxuriant 
tree,  spreading  its  branches  far  and  wide,  so  that  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  might  be  sheltered  beneath  its  ample  foliage,  and 
be  nourished  by  its  perennial  fruit.  And  well  might  these 
Apostles  be  compared  to  twelve  little  streams,  deepening  and 
broadening  as  they  advanced,  and  not  inundating  the  earth 
as  of  old,  with  the  waters  of  destruction,  but  refreshing  it  with 
the  rivers  of  eternal  life. 

The  Apostles  had  implicit  faith  in  their  Divine  Master 
when  He  commanded  them  to  preach  the  gospel  to  all  nations. 


2O  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

They  knew  He  was  God.  They  knew  that  His  word  was 
truth,  that  His  word  was  power  and  omnipotence.  They  had 
been  witnesses  of  His  miracles.  They  knew  that  He  who 
said  in  the  beginning:  "Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was 
light" — let  the  earth  bring  forth  fruit,  and  it  came  forth — 
they  knew  that  He  would  now,  through  their  instrumentality, 
cause  the  light  of  faith  to  shine  on  the  darkened  intellects  of 
men,  and  the  fruit  of  santification  to  grow  abundantly  in  their 
hearts.  And  therefore  they  go  forth,  nothing  hesitating,  and 
resolved  to  communicate  the  saving  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  every  portion  of  the  Roman  dominions. 

They  parcel  out  the  Roman  Empire  among  themselves. 
Their  only  weapon  is  the  cross ;  their  only  credentials,  the  gos- 
pel of  Christ.  St.  Peter  commences  his  apostolic  ministry  in 
Jerusalem,  where  his  first  sermon  is  followed  by  the  conversion 
of  three  thousand  souls,  some  of  whom  had,  no  doubt,  wit- 
nessed the  crucifixion  of  our  Savior,  and  perhaps  even  had  a 
hand  in  His  death.  He  afterwards  established  his  see  in  An- 
tioch,  and  finally  suffers  martyrdom  in  Rome. 

St.  Paul,  the  indefatigable  teacher  of  the  Gentiles,  traverses 
through  various  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia,  everywhere  bear- 
ing the  torch  of  faith.  St.  Andrew  preaches  in  Syria  and 
Greece.  St.  John  evangelizes  Ephesus  and  Asia  Minor.  St. 
James  announces  the  glad  tidings  in  Judea  and  Galilee.  St. 
Thomas  carries  the  light  of  the  gospel  to  the  remote  Indies, 
and  traces  of  the  Christianity  that  he  there  established,  were 
discovered  by  St.  Francis  Xavier  when  he  visited  that  country 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  And  so  on  of  the  other  Apostles. 
In  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "their  sound  hath  gone  forth  to  all 
the  earth,  and  their  words  to  the  ends  of  the  whole  world." 

But  if  we  are  amazed  at  what  I  might  call  the  pious  au- 
dacity of  the  Apostles  and  their  immediate  successors  in  under- 
taking the  herculean  task  of  converting  the  nations,  we  are  still 
more  astonished  when  we  contemplate  the  result  of  their  la- 
bors. St.  Paul,  about  thirty  years  after  our  Lord's  crucifixion, 
writes  these  words  to  the  Romans:  "I  give  thanks  to  God 
through  Jesus  Christ,  that  your  faith  is  spoken  of  throughout 
the  whole  world,"  and,  of  course,  spoken  of  by  men  who  were 
in  sympathy  and  communion  with  the  faith  of  Rome. 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  21 

St.  Justin,  whose  death  occurred  sixty-six  years  after  the 
death  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  says :  "There  is  no  race  of 
people,  whether  Greeks  or  barbarians,  among  whom  prayers 
and  the  Eucharist  are  not  offered  to  God  the  Father  and  Maker 
of  all  things,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  crucified." 

Tertullian,  who  was  born  about  the  year  160  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  does  not  hesitate  to  address  these  words  to  the  Roman 
Emperor :  "We  are  but  of  yesterday,  and  we  have  filled  your 
empire.  Your  cities,  your  towns,  your  islands,  your  forests, 
your  army,  your  senate,  your  palace  and  forum  swarm  with 
Christians.  We  have  left  nothing  to  you  except  your  empty 
temples." 

St.  Irenaeus,  who  lived  in  the  same  century,  bears  wit- 
ness also  of  the  marvelous  growth  of  the  Gospel  in  his  day, 
and  he  is  careful  to  tell  us  that  the  faith  of  these  times  was 
everywhere  identical.  "As  the  light,"  he  says,  "which  illumines 
this  world  is  everywhere  the  same  because  it  proceeds  from  the 
same  great  luminary  of  day,  so  is  the  light  of  faith  that  shines 
on  the  intellects  of  men  everywhere  identical,  because  it  pro- 
ceeds from  Jesus  Christ,  the  eternal  Sun  of  Justice." 

What  a  contrast  presents  itself  to  our  minds  between  the 
peaceful  conquests  of  the  Apostles  and  their  successors,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  bloody  victories  achieved  by  the  great  gen- 
erals of  antiquity  on  the  other,  whether  we  consider  the  wea- 
pons with  which  they  fought,  or  the  battles  which  they  won, 
or  the  duration  of  their  victories.  Alexander  the  Great,  who 
may  be  considered  one  of  the  greatest  generals  of  ancient 
times,  subdued  nations  by  wading  through  the  blood  of  his 
fellow-beings.  By  the  sword  he  conquered,  and  by  the  sword 
he  kept  his  subjects  in  bondage.  But  scarcely  was  he  con- 
signed to  the  grave,  when  his  empire  was  dismembered,  and  his 
subjects  shook  off  the  yoke  which  had  been  imposed  upon 
them. 

The  Apostles  conquered  kingdoms  for  their  Divine  Master, 
not  by  force,  but  by  persuasion;  not  by  the  material  sword, 
but  "by  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God;" 
not  by  shedding  the  blood  of  others,  but  by  the  voluntary  shed- 
ding of  their  own  blood ;  not  by  enslaving  the  bodies  of  men, 
but  by  rescuing  their  souls  from  the  bondage  of  sin.  And 


22  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

the  spiritual  republic  which  they  founded  exists  unto  this  day; 
is  constantly  extending  its  lines,  and  is  kept  together,  not  by 
frowning  fortifications  and  standing  armies,  but  by  the  divine 
influence  of  religious  and  moral  sanctions. 

What  does  this  prove?  It  proves  that  the  pen  and  the 
voice  are  mightier  than  the  sword.  It  proves  that  "peace  hath 
her  victories  no  less  renowned  than  war/'  aye,  victories  more 
substantial  and  more  enduring.  It  proves  that  all  schemes 
conceived  in  passion  and  fomented  by  lawless  ambition  are 
doomed,  like  the  mountain  torrent,  to  carry  terror  before 
them,  and  to  leave  ruin  and  desolation  after  them;  while  the 
actions  of  men  laboring  in  the  name  and  under  the  inspiration 
of  God,  are  destined,  like  the  gentle  dew  of  heaven,  to  shed 
silent  blessings  around  them,  and  to  bring  forth  abundant  fruit 
in  due  season. 

No  rational  and  dispassionate  mind  can  review  the  history 
of  the  infant  Church  without  discerning  the  stamp  of  divinity 
impressed  upon  her  brow.  When  we  consider  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  feeble  instruments 
that  were  employed  to  produce  such  results ;  when  we  consider 
the  hostility  which  the  Apostles  encountered  in  the  whole 
course  of  their  ministry ;  when  we  consider  the  opposition  they 
met  with  from  the  learned  and  from  the  populace,  from  the 
priests  of  the  pagan  superstition  and  from  the  established  gov- 
ernment itself;  above  all,  when  we  reflect  on  the  sublime  and 
austere  moral  code  which  they  proclaimed  to  a  people  whose 
religion  tolerated  and  even  sanctioned  the  most  dissolute  mor- 
als, we  are  forced  to  admit  that  Christianity  was  divine  and 
miraculous  in  its  origin. 

Well  did  St.  Paul  sound  this  keynote  when  he  exclaimed : 
"The  foolish  things  of  the  world  hath  God  chosen  that  He 
might  confound  the  wise,  and  the  weak  things  of  the  world 
hath  God  chosen  that  He  might  confound  the  strong,  and  the 
things  that  are  contemptible,  and  the  things  that  are  not,  that 
He  might  bring  to  naught  the  things  that  are,  that  no  flesh 
should  glory  in  His  sight." 

And,  indeed,  the  wisdom  of  God  is  specially  manifested  in 
the  adoption  of  means  utterly  disproportioned  to  the  end  to  be 
attained,  so  that  the  world  might  be  convinced  that  Christian- 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  23 

ity  was  the  work  of  God  and  not  of  man,  and  that  all  the  glory 
should  redound  to  God. 

For,  if  Christ  had  appeared  in  all  the  pomp  and  splendor 
of  a  temporal  sovereign,  if  He  had  associated  with  Him  the 
power  of  Caesar,  if  He  had  impressed  into  His  service  the 
armies  of  imperial  Rome,  the  world  would  justly  exclaim : 
There  is  no  miracle  here,  for  Christianity  was  propagated,  not 
by  the  finger  of  God,  but  by  the  arms  of  the  flesh.  Or,  if 
our  Lord  had  employed  in  the  service  of  His  religion  the 
poets  and  orators,  the  historians  and  other  literary  men  of  his 
age;  if  he  had  inspired  a  Virgil  and  an  Ovid,  a  Cicero  and  a 
Tacitus  to  wield  their  pen  and  raise  their  voices  in  attestation 
of  the  new  religion,  then  the  world  would  cry  out :  There  is 
no  miracle  here,  for  the  Christian  religion  was  propagated  not 
by  the  folly  of  the  cross,  but  by  "the  persuasive  work  of  hu- 
man wisdom."  Or,  if  our  Savior  had  appeared  as  the  pos- 
sessor and  distributor  of  immense  wealth,  if  He  had  lavished 
bribes  and  bounties  to  induce  men  to  embrace  His  religion, 
then  the  world  would  say,  there  is  no  miracle  here,  for  men 
were  drawn  to  the  Christian  religion,  not  by  "the  pearl  of 
great  price,"  but  by  the  gold  which  glitters.  But  when  we  be- 
hold Christianity  established  by  the  weapons  of  weakness,  hu- 
mility and  poverty,  we  are  forced  to  exclaim :  "The  finger  of 
God  is  here." 

The  historian  Gibbon,  the  author  of  "The  Decline  and 
Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  was  obliged  to  admit  the  won- 
derful growth  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  first  three 
centuries.  But  he  endeavored  to  divest  this  achievement  of  its 
miraculous  character,  and  to  explain  the  phenomenon  on 
purely  rational  grounds.  He  ascribes  the  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity to  these  five  great  causes:  ist.  The  indomitable  zeal 
of  the  primitive  Christians;  2d.  Their  pure  and  blameless 
lives;  3d.  Their  unshaken  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul;  4th.  Their  alleged  power  of  working  miracles;  5th. 
Their  admirable  organization. 

There  is  no  doubt  indeed  that  these  causes  exerted  a  pow- 
erful influence  in  the  propagation  of  Christianity.  But  I  main- 
tain that  these  causes  were  totally  inadequate  to  accomplish 
the  results  which  followed;  they  were  secondary,  not  primary 


24  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

causes.  They  were  the  effects  of  a  great  first  cause.  If,  in 
your  travels  through  Switzerland  or  the  Adirondack  moun- 
tains, you  behold  a  beautiful  placid  lake,  your  curiosity  may 
lead  you  to  discover  the  streams  that  feed  it.  Your  investiga- 
tion is  rewarded  by  finding  five  rivulets  flowing  into  it.  In 
pursuing  your  investigation  still  farther,  you  find  that  these 
streams  have  their  source  in  the  snow-capped  mountain  in  the 
distance.  Let  us  apply  this  illustration  to  the  present  subject. 

Who  inspired  the  primitive  Christians  with  their  unquench- 
able zeal  and  enthusiasm? — an  enthusiasm  enduring  for  cen- 
turies and  extending  over  the  known  world — an  enthusiasm 
in  an  unpopular  and  hated  cause.  Who  raised  them  to  that 
high  plane  of  moral  rectitude?  Who  impressed  them  with  that 
undaunted  faith  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  in  a  future 
destiny?  Who  imparted  to  them  the  power  of  working  mir- 
acles? Who  gave  them  that  indissoluble  organization  ce- 
mented, not  by  force,  but  formed  by  the  golden  bonds  of 
love? 

Who  was  it  but  the  Lord  of  hosts  ?  It  was  He  who  said : 
"Go  teach  all  nations,  and  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days, 
even  to  the  consummation  of  the  world."  It  was  He  who 
said:  "Fear  not,  I  have  conquered  the  world."  It  was  He 
who  said :  "The  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the 
strong."  It  was  He  who  said:  "Ye  have  not  chosen  Me, 
but  I  have  chosen  you,  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth  fruit, 
and  your  fruit  should  remain." 

My  Brethren,  imitate  your  forefathers  in  the  faith,  by 
your  undaunted  belief  in  an  immortal  destiny.  Imitate  them 
by  the  rectitude  of  your  lives.  Imitate  them  by  your  zeal 
for  the  honor  of  God  and  of  His  church.  Imitate  them,  above 
all,  by  working  miracles  of  grace  and  mercy,  by  your  charity 
and  compassion  for  the  sufferings  of  your  fellow-beings.  "Re- 
ligion," says  the  Apostle,  "pure  and  undefiled  before  God  and 
the  Father  is  this :  to  visit  the  orphans  and  widows  in  their 
tribulations,  and  to  keep  one's  self  unspotted  from  the  world." 

I  beg  to  congratulate  you,  Right  Reverend  Bishop,  on  the 
double  festivity  we  are  celebrating  to-day — the  Consecration 
of  this  Cathedral  Church,  and  the  Silver  Jubilee  of  your  own 
Consecration  as  first  Bishop  of  the  See  of  Peoria.  It  was 


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John  Lancaster  Spalding  25 

my  good  fortune  to  be  present  at  your  Episcopal  Consecration 
five  and  twenty  years  ago,  to  this  very  day,  and  it  was  my 
privilege  to  be  one  of  the  assistant  consecrators  on  that  oc- 
casion. 

I  have  watched  your  career  as  Chief  Pastor  of  this  diocese 
with  profound  interest  and  gratification,  not  only  on  account 
of  my  personal  friendship  for  yourself,  but  also  because  of 
my  filial  affection  for  your  venerable  uncle,  the  illustrious 
Archbishop  Spalding  of  Baltimore,  whom  I  loved  and  revered 
as  my  father  in  God. 

The  splendid  talents  with  which  God  has  endowed  you 
have  been  employed  not  only  in  instructing  the  faithful  of 
your  own  diocese,  but  also  in  enlightening  your  fellow  citizens 
throughout  the  land.  Your  zeal  for  God's  Church  has  been 
made  manifest  by  the  steady  growth  of  religion  here,  during 
the  last  twenty-five  years.  Churches  and  clergy,  institutions 
erected  in  the  cause  of  education,  of  religion  and  humanity, 
have  unceasingly  multiplied  during  your  administration. 
When  I  survey  the  field  and  see  what  has  been  accom- 
plished in  a  quarter  of  a  century;  when  I  consider  the 
thousands  of  families  coming  to  our  shores  from  various 
parts  of  Europe,  and  settling  in  this  fruitful  State  of  Illinois; 
when  I  contemplate  the  thousands  of  their  children  growing  up 
at  their  sides,  and  assimilated  into  one  homogeneous  body, 
inheriting  the  faith  of  their  fathers;  when  I  behold  their  rep- 
resentatives assembled  before  me  in  such  large  numbers,  may 
not  such  a  spectacle  vividly  recall  to  my  mind  the  Prophet's 
words,  and  may  I  not  exclaim  with  him  in  joyous  accents: 
"Arise,  be  enlightened,  O  Jerusalem,  for  thy  light  is  come,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee.  The  Gentiles  shall 
walk  in  thy  light,  and  kings  in  the  brightness  of  thy  rising. 
Lift  up  thine  eyes  round  about  and  see.  All  these  are  gath- 
ered together,  they  are  come  to  thee.  Thy  sons  shall  come 
from  afar,  and  thy  daughters  shall  rise  up  at  thy  side.  Then 
shalt  thou  see  and  abound,  and  thy  heart  shall  wonder  and  be 
enlarged,  when  the  multitude  of  the  sea  shall  be  converted  to 
thee,  the  strength  of  the  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thee." 

You  have  been  ably  seconded  by  a  loyal  and  devoted 
clergy,  upon  whom  you  have  impressed  the  character  of  your 


26  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

own  zeal  and  activity.  Above  all,  you  have  been  cheered  and 
sustained  by  the  generous  aid  and  co-operation  of  a  pious 
and  enlightened  laity,  without  whose  support  a  Bishop  can 
accomplish  little  or  nothing.  An  edifying  and  instructed  laity 
is  the  glory  and  ornament  of  the  Church  of  God. 

When  the  bishop,  the  clergy,  and  you,  beloved  brethren  of 
the  laity,  are  united  in  the  cause  of  God  and  humanity,  you 
are  invincible.  There  is  no  such  word  as  fail.  You  are  an 
impregnable  phalanx.  You  form  a  triple  chord  that  cannot 
be  broken.  You  constitute  a  triple  alliance,  more  formidable 
than  the  triple  alliance  of  Germany,  Austria  and  Italy,  because 
yours  is  an  alliance  not  sustained  by  armed  hosts,  military 
prowess,  and  the  material  sword,  but  an  alliance  upheld  by  the 
cohesive  and  enduring  power  of  divine  love. 

And  why,  my  brethren,  should  you  not  co-operate  with 
your  Bishop  and  clergy?  Have  you  not  the  same  God  and 
Father  in  Heaven?  Were  you  not  all  redeemed  by  the  blood 
of  the  same  Blessed  Savior  ?  Are  you  not  all  sanctified  by  the 
same  Spirit?  "There  are  diversities  of  graces,"  says  the 
Apostle,  "but  the  same  Spirit.  There  are  diversities  of  min- 
istries, but  the  same  Lord.  There  are  diversities  of  operations, 
but  the  same  God  who  worketh  all  in  all."  You  are  in  the 
same  bark  of  Peter,  tossed  about  by  the  same  storms  of  life, 
and  steering  towards  the  same  eternal  shores,  prospective  citi- 
zens of  the  same  heavenly  kingdom. 

And  surely  there  is  no  country  on  the  face  of  this  earth 
where  you  can  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  your 
conscience  with  more  freedom  than  in  these  United  States, 
where  there  is  liberty  without  license,  and  authority  without 
despotism.  In  1870,  when  returning  from  the  Vatican  Council, 
Archbishop  Spalding  and  myself  were  guests  of  a  Bishop  in 
Savoy.  The  Bishop  resided  in  a  splendid  palace,  and  a  sen- 
tinel was  pacing  in  front  of  his  residence,  stationed  there  by 
the  government  as  a  guard  of  honor.  I  congratulated  the 
Bishop  on  his  magnificent  appointments,  and  the  distinction 
that  was  paid  to  him.  The  Bishop  shook  his  head,  and  replied 
to  me:  "All  is  not  gold  that  glitters;  I  cannot  build  even  a 
sacristy  without  the  permission  of  the  government." 

Thank  God,  no  military  satrap  can  stand  between  you  and 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  27 

your  Bishop.  Here  the  government  holds  over  you  the  segis 
of  its  protection  without  interfering  with  you  in  the  exercise 
of  your  sacred  functions. 

May  the  happy  conditions  of  things  now  existing  among 
us  always  continue,  when  the  Bishops  and  clergy  will  have  di- 
rect relations  with  the  people,  when  prelates  and  priests  will 
bestow  on  their  spiritual  children  their  apostolic  labors,  their 
tender  solicitude  and  fatherly  affection,  and  pour  out  their 
heart's  blood,  if  necessary,  and  when  they  will  receive  in  return 
the  free  will  offerings,  the  devotion  and  affection  of  a  grateful 
people. 

Be  loyal  to  your  country  and  to  your  religion.  No  citizen 
of  the  United  States  should  be  a  drone  in  the  social  hive.  No 
citizen  should  be  an  indifferent  spectator  of  the  social,  political, 
and  economic  events  occurring  around  him. 

As  we  are  all  protected  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  govern- 
ment, so  should  we  all  unite  in  sustaining  the  burden  of  the 
commonwealth.  Above  all,  take  an  abiding  and  a  vital  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  welfare  of  your  holy  religion.  Let  the 
language  of  the  psalmist  be  your  inspiring  watchword  on  this 
solemn  occasion :  "If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  let  my  right 
hand  be  forgotten.  Let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my 
mouth,  if  I  do  not  remember  you,  if  I  make  not  Jerusalem 
the  beginning  of  my  joy." 

After  the  sermon  the  cardinal  resumed  the  official  cape  of 
ermine  and  the  celebration  of  the  Mass  was  resumed.  During 
the  offertory  the  choir  sang  an  "Alleluia,"  the  Grier  quartette 
carrying  the  solos,  and  supported  by  the  splendid  choir  under 
Professor  Plowe's  direction. 

Too  much  praise  cannot  be  accorded  the  choir  and  those 
having  the  music  in  charge.  The  musical  part  of  the  celebra- 
tion was  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  great  occasion.  Espe- 
cially beautiful  was  the  "Sanctus,"  the  violins  adding  much 
to  the  impressiveness  and  beauty  of  the  number. 

During  the  few  moments  of  absolute  silence  that  followed 
the  singing  of  the  "Sanctus,"  the  scene  was  one  never  to  be 
forgotten.  The  chancel  with  its  gorgeous  background  of  color, 
thronged  with  kneeling  priests;  the  vast  congregation  in 


28  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

prayer;  the  banners,  the  flags,  the  flowers,  the  candles,  and 
"God's  own  sunshine,  that  shines  for  all,"  streaming  through 
the  beautiful  windows,  made  a  picture  of  marvelous  and  most 
impressive  grandeur. 

To  the  inspiring  strains  of  the  "March  of  the  Priests" 
from  "Athalia,"  the  priestly  procession  retired  from  the 
chancel.  As  it  came  and  took  its  way  back  to  the  institute, 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  his  long  robes  supported  by  six  train- 
bearers,  retired  at  once  to  the  episcopal  residence,  preceded  by 
the  other  members  of  the  hierarchy  and  clergy. 

THE  BANQUET. 

Immediately  following  the  services  at  the  cathedral  the 
dignitaries  of  the  church  and  the  clergymen  were  entertained 
at  a  grand  banquet  served  in  the  recital  hall  of  Spalding  In- 
stitute. The  decorations  were  elaborate  and  the  tables  were 
beautifully  decked  with  smilax,  American  beauty  and  bride's 
roses  banked  about  the  walls,  with  stately  lilies  nodding  here 
and  there.  When  the  menu  had  been  disposed  of,  Bishop 
O'Reilly,  who  acted  as  toast-master,  arose  and  spoke  as  fol- 
lows: 

Eminent  and  Respected  Prelates  and  Fathers: 

There  is  one  in  the  midst  of  us  today,  whose  presence  is 
not  only  a  personal  tribute  and  greeting  to  our  great  Jubilarian, 
but  a  supreme  joy  to  the  Priests  and  people  of  the  Diocese, 
and  an  honor  that  our  fair  city  fully  appreciates.  I  allude  to 
our  own  revered  and  popular  Cardinal  Gibbons.  Whenever 
he  speaks  from  the  chair  of  the  Primatial  See  of  Baltimore, 
whether  proclaiming  the  gospel  of  peace  and  good  will  to  the 
faithful,  or  requests  the  whole  Nation  to  give  thanks  for  abun- 
dant blessings,  or  touches  a  minor  chord  when  sorrow  bows 
down  the  national  heart,  and  his  words  are  carried  on  the 
wings  of  the  press,  into  the  millions  of  homes;  we  all  feel 
that  it  is  not  only  good,  but  a  priceless  privilege  to  belong  to 
a  church  that  crowns  such  noble  and  worthy  men  with  the 
insignia  of  the  Cardinalate.  I  have  the  honor  of  introducing 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  29 

to  you  His  Eminence — our  beloved  Cardinal  Gibbons,  who  has 
kindly  consented  to  respond  to  the  toast,  "Our  Holy  Father." 
As  His  Eminence  arose  he  was  most  cordially  received. 
The  Cardinal  expressed  the  reverence  and  affection  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  in  the  United  States  for  the  head 
of  the  church,  and  the  hope  that  he  might  be  spared  to  the 
service  of  mankind  for  many  years  to  come.  He  has  labored 
during  the  long  years  of  his  reign  for  the  betterment  of  human- 
ity. There  has  been  no  good  cause  that  has  not  enlisted  his 
sympathy.  His  encyclicals  have  been  towers  of  defence 
against  the  attacks  of  evil,  notably  those  on  "The  Condition  of 
the  Working  Classes,"  "The  Christian  Constitution  of  States," 
"Human  Liberty"  and  "Christian  Marriage."  Not  Catholics 
only,  but  all  civilized  peoples  pray  that  his  years  may  be 
lengthened.  

THE  TOAST-MASTER. 

Your  Eminence  and,  Esteemed  Fathers: 

Among  our  guests  on  this  beautiful  May-day,  I  notice  a 
life-long  friend  and  classmate  of  our  Host,  the  popular  and 
eloquent  Prelate — Archbishop  Riordan  of  San  Francisco. 
We  have  known  him  as  a  zealous  and  enlightened  Pastor  in 
our  own  State,  loved  and  admired  by  all,  for  his  noble  qualities. 
His  Grace  rules  a  Diocese  replete  with  sacred  traditions  and 
historic  interest,  and  the  prayers  and  good  wishes  of  his  old 
friends  in  Illinois  ever  follow  him  to  the  land  of  sunshine,  and 
fruits  and  flowers.  His  presence  here,  as  a  testimony  from 
the  far  West  will  add  much  glory  to  this  occasion,  and  we 
invite  him  to  respond  to  the  toast — "Our  Country." 

ADDRESS  OF  ARCHBISHOP  RIORDAN. 

"OUR  COUNTRY." 

The  toast  proposed  is  a  theme  far  too  vast  for  an  after- 
dinner  speech,  and  so  sacred  that  its  introduction  amid  the 
joyous  incidents  of  this  celebration  may  seem  incongruous  and 
out  of  place.  Yet,  loving  children  never  meet  in  sorrow  or 
in  joy  without  some  tribute  to  the  mother  who  bore  them,  who 


SO  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

gave  them  their  life  and  who  carries  them  in  her  thoughts  and 
affections,  even  to  their  graves.  So,  as  loving  and  devoted 
sons  of  the  great  country  in  which  we  live,  we  feel  that  the 
celebration  of  to-day  would  be  incomplete  did  we  not  speak  in 
words  of  love  of  this  mother  land  of  ours  and  pledge  her  a 
loyalty  and  devotion  that  shall  never  fail.  The  great  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles,  though  living  amid  the  corruption  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  that  at  last  cast  him  out  as  unworthy  to  live, 
claimed  and  exercised  his  privilege  as  a  free  born  citizen  oi 
Rome  and  entreated  his  fellow-Christians  to  give  obedience  to 
the  State.  There  is  a  patriotic  ring  in  his  words  when  he  pro- 
claims himself  the  citizen  of  no  mean  city,  though  poor  and 
wretched  beyond  description,  viz. :  Tarsus  of  Cilicia,  and  the 
Blessed  Lord  Himself  was  moved  to  tears  as  He  beheld  the 
city  of  Jerusalem  and  knew  of  its  impending  doom,  because  it 
had  not  known  the  time  of  its  visitation. 

That  man  is  to  be  pitied  who  can  view  this  magnificent 
domain,  extending  from  ocean  to  ocean,  capable  of  producing 
everything  needful  or  useful  for  man's  life  and  comfort,  with 
a  system  of  government  so  gentle  in  its  application  to  the 
individual  that  we  are  hardly  conscious  of  its  existence,  the 
well  being  of  the  great  majority  of  its  citizens,  the  general 
intelligence  of  the  people,  the  ample  means  provided  for  the 
highest  culture,  the  happy  homes  in  every  State  of  the  Union, 
the  obedience  to  law,  the  respect  for  religion,  the  munificent 
contribution  to  the  institutions  of  education  and  charity  that 
prove,  while  vast  fortunes  are  easily  accumulated,  their 
possessors  have  the  grace  to  distribute  them  in  aid  of  worthy 
objects ;  the  large  personal  liberty  accorded  to  all  and  protected 
in  its  exercise  by  law ;  the  inestimable  boon  of  perfect  freedom 
in  the  domain  of  conscience — not  a  privilege  granted  by  the 
country,  not  a  right  held  from  the  State,  but  a  right  of  con- 
science so  that  any  law  abridging  that  right  so  long  as  in  its 
exercise  it  does  not  subvert  public  order  or  public  decency,  is 
unconstitutional,  and  hence  null  and  void :  I  say  the  man  who 
has  all  these  benefits  before  his  mind  and  does  not  feel  a  thrill 
of  the  most  intense  love  for  the  country  is  incapable  of  appre- 
ciating the  highest  and  best  things  of  life;  his  mind  is  in 
darkness,  his  heart  is  in  the  dust. 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  31 

We  cannot,  with  any  degree  of  intelligence,  read  the  history 
of  God's  dealings  with  the  human  family  as  manifested  in  the 
history  of  nations  without  being  convinced  that  this  is  a  chosen 
land,  reserved  in  the  design  of  an  all-loving  Providence,  as  the 
home  of  a  race  of  men  who,  under  a  system  of  government 
hitherto  untried,  might  develop,  under  the  least  possible  re- 
straint, whatever  is  good  and  praiseworthy  in  their  nature; 
might  attain  to  the  highest  perfection  in  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  order.  Here  the  ideal  manhood,  so  tersely  yet  so 
luminously  traced  by  the  great  Apostle,  was  to  be  realized. 
"Where  there  is  neither  Gentile  nor  Jew,  circumcision  nor 
uncircumcision,  Barbarian  nor  Scythian,  bond  nor  free;  but 
Christ  is  all  in  all,"  to  which  all  men  are  welcome,  no  mat- 
ter where  from.  Here  was  to  be  a  city  of  refuge  which  all 
might  enter  who  were  tired  of  the  galling  yoke  of  oppression 
and  the  trammels  which  tyranny  wound  about  every  sphere 
of  their  lives,  where  merit  would  be  recognized,  and  man — 
simply  because  he  is  man — receive  full  recognition  as  a  man. 

The  republics  of  the  past  were  republics  only  in  name. 
Their  territory  was  small,  frequently  only  a  single  city.  The 
republics  of  modern  times,  outside  of  our  own,  are  not  much 
better.  Military  despotisms,  for  the  most  part,  in  which  a 
successful  soldier  holds  power  over  his  fellow  men  and  wields 
it  without  any  restraint  upon  its  exercise.  Here,  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  was  organized  a  system  of 
government,  on  a  large  scale  and  capable  of  indefinite  expan- 
sion, "of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people,"  the 
culmination  of  a  movement  that  began  with  the  first  preaching 
of  the  Christian  religion,  that  aroused  the  fierce  opposition  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  not  because  it  was  a  religion,  but  because 
Rome  saw  in  it  a  principal  of  government  destructive  to 
its  own.  It  slowly  but  continuously  leavened  the  thoughts 
of  men  during  the  Middle  Ages,  and  here  and  there  put  forth 
a  flower  in  small  free  communities  until  at  last,  on  a  fresh 
soil  under  more  kindly  skies,  almost  unexpectedly,  with- 
out preparation,  as  Minerva  sprang  from  the  brain  of  Jove 
full-armed,  it  took  its  place  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  and 
its  message  to  men  was  a  message  of  liberty  and  equality,  and 
that  conscience  is  subject  only  to  God.  For  that  we  thank  God 


$2  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

and  love  our  country,  and  pray  for  its  prosperity.  None  are  and 
none  have  more  reason  to  be  grateful  than  Catholics.  Indeed, 
Catholics  throughout  the  world  owe  it  a  debt  of  gratitude. 
Every  government,  from  the  day  it  came  down  from  the  upper 
chamber  in  Jerusalem  an  organized  body  instinct  with  divine 
life,  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit  its  informing  principle 
and  the  pledge  of  its  indestructible  life,  has  lifted  its  hand 
against  the  church.  "You  shall  be  hated  of  all  men,"  has  re- 
ceived its  fulfillment  in  the  history  of  every  nation  except  one, 
and  that  solitary  exception  is  our  own.  Individuals  have  at- 
tacked us ;  the  people  at  large  have  condemned  them.  Aggrega- 
tions of  individuals,  sometimes  out  of  malice,  more  frequently 
through  ignorance,  have  striven  here  and  there  to  light  the  fires 
of  persecution ;  the  nation  at  large  has  cried  shame.  We  have 
always  felt — from  the  time  when  only  one  Bishop  from  his  See 
in  Baltimore  governed  a  small  and  scattered  flock  of  a  few 
thousand  Catholics  along  the  Atlantic  shore,  down  to  this  hour, 
when  eighty  Bishops  rule  over  as  many  millions  as  the  first 
did  over  thousands — once  within  the  precincts  of  an  United 
States  Court  and  under  the  protection  of  the  general  govern- 
ment, or  even  State  government,  our  rights,  our  liberties  and 
our  properties  were  secure;  that  the  promise  made  to  the  world 
by  the  founders  of  this  republic,  that  while  the  government 
should  set  up  no  church  of  its  own,  it  should  protect  all  men 
in  the  free  and  untrammeled  exercise  of  their  religious  liberties 
and  God-given  rights  of  conscience.  We  have  always  felt  that 
that  promise  was  in  force  and  most  sacredly  kept.  There  is 
not  in  all  history  a  nobler  act  recorded  than  the  conduct  of  those 
who  drew  up  the  Constitution  and  of  those  who  added  to  it  its 
first  amendment,  who  sprung  from  a  nation  that  for  three 
hundred  years  had  been  bitterly  hostile  to  the  Catholic  religion 
and  whose  penal  laws  still  disgraced  its  legislation,  at  a  time 
when  all  Europe  had  risen  against  the  Holy  See,  whose 
venerable  Pontiff  was  prisoner,  came  together  in  the  city  of 
Brotherly  Love,  organized  this  government,  and  in  its  defense 
pledged  their  fortunes,  their  lives  and  their  sacred  honor,  and 
sent  across  the  seas  the  invitation  to  the  oppressed  of  every 
clime  to  come  and  build  upon  a  new  soil  their  tabernacles,  and, 
beneath  the  protection  of  a  new  flag,  work  out  their  temporal 


LIBRARY 
Of  THE 
UNIVERSITY  Of 


RT.  REV.  JAMES  RYAN,  D.  D. 
Bishop  of  Alton 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  33 

and  eternal  destinies,  subject  only  to  just  laws  made  by  them- 
selves, and  responsible  in  all  that  belongs  to  the  soul  to  God, 
and  God  alone. 

I  repeat,  that  this  action  of  the  government  at  the  very 
beginning  of  its  history,  coming  at  the  time  it  did  and  under 
the  circumstances  that  confronted  it,  stands  unique  in  the 
history  of  the  world  and  should  be  remembered  with  gratitude 
by  Catholics  throughout  the  entire  Church.  Such  has  been  its 
attitude  in  the  past,  and  such  is  its  attitude  at  present.  It  leaves 
us  free.  If  we  fail  to  build  up  a  strong,  active  and  progressive 
church,  the  fault  will  be  ours,  and  a  proof  that  we  are  unequal 
to  the  mission  confided  to  us  by  God,  and  lack  the  qualities 
which  the  country  looks  to  us  to  possess, — well  stored  minds, 
Apostolic  zeal  and  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  the  spiritual  man. 
To  do  our  work  well,  we  must  love  the  land  in  which  we  live, 
and  the  institutions  that  place  no  hindrance  in  our  way.  Of 
all  citizens  we  should  be  the  most  patriotic,  and  patriotism  does 
not  consist  in  paying  taxes  and  in  external  obedience  to  the 
laws.  It  has  its  root  in  a  loving  and  grateful  heart.  The 
country  is  still  young.  It  is  laying  a  foundation  of  a  mightier 
empire  than  the  most  vivid  imagination  can  conceive.  Surely 
it  is  not  for  any  man  worthy  of  the  name  to  stand  idly  by  and, 
with  the  sneer  of  a  cynic  and  the  criticism  of  a  pessimist,  refuse 
his  co-operation  in  the  mighty  work.  It  is  the  duty  of  every 
Christian  man,  while  helping  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a 
mighty  civil  commonwealth,  to  lay  side  by  side  with  them  the 
foundations  of  the  City  of  his  God.  The  field  that  spreads 
itself  before  our  gaze  is  as  broad  and  promising  as  the  greatest 
activity  could  desire;  the  work  that  we  are  called  to  do  is  as 
high,  as  noble  and  inspiring  as  ever  fired  the  loftiest  ambition. 

Permit  me  a  few  words  of  a  more  personal  character.  I 
feel  that,  having  come  so  far,  I  may  lay  claim  to  your  indulg- 
ence. Some  years  ago  I  listened  to  an  eloquent  discourse  by 
the  Bishop  of  this  See.  Among  other  things,  he  uttered  the 
prediction  that  the  typical  American  of  the  future  would  be 
born  in  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  I  do  not  know  what 
the  future  may  bring  forth.  I  cannot  say  that  the  man  of  the 
future  will  be  of  greater  stature  or  better  equipped  mentally 
and  spiritually  than  the  man  of  the  present.  I  do  know,  how- 


34  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

ever,  that  a  typical  American  citizen  and  a  typical  American 
Bishop  has  had  his  home  in  this  city,  the  very  center  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  for  the  past  twenty-five  years.  He  has 
labored  strenuously  and  successfully  "Pro  Deo  et  pro  Patria," 
— for  God  and  country.  He  has  done  his  part  as  a  workman 
of  whom  we  need  not  be  ashamed,  to  strengthen  the  institu- 
tions of  our  beloved  country.  His  words,  so  often  and  so 
eloquently  spoken,  have  carried  inspiration  and  life  to  thou- 
sands. We  are  gathered  about  him  to-day  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  and  we  speak  our  congratulations  in  words  of  heart- 
felt sincerity,  and  we  ask  that  many  years  may  still  be  his  to 
work  Pro  Deo  et  pro  Patria. 


THE  TOAST-MASTER. 

Your  Eminence  and  Honored  Friends: 

It  gives  additional  joy  and  splendor  to  this  day  to  witness 
the  first  Rector  of  our  great  and  promising  Catholic  Uni- 
versity extend  hearty  greeting  to  its  chief  promoter  and  de- 
voted patron.  The  whole  life  of  the  devout  and  erudite 
Metropolitan  of  Dubuque  is  a  series  of  lessons  on  the  great 
Christian  virtues,  accentuating  in  a  high  degree  kindness,  for- 
bearance and  good  will.  There  is  a  feeling  of  delight  which 
we  cannot  repress  or  conceal  in  beholding  the  first  sponsor  and 
regent  of  our  greatest  school  of  learning  extend  personal 
felicitation  to  its  founder  and  benefactor.  It  is  my  privilege 
to  introduce  to  you  His  Grace,  Archbishop  Keane,  who  will 
respond  to  the  toast — "The  Church  in  Our  Own  Country." 

ADDRESS  OF  ARCHBISHOP  KEANE. 

"THE  CHURCH  IN  OUR  OWN  COUNTRY." 

He  does  the  best  service  to  both  Church  and  Country  who 
keeps  us  in  mind  of  their  ideals. 

We  are  too  prone  to  be  mere  statisticians.  We  think  and 
speak  of  both  Church  and  Country  in  terms  of  what  we  can 
count  or  measure.  This  makes  us  boastful,  and  it  leads  us  to 
deceive  not  only  others  but  ourselves  as  to  the  great  realities. 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  55 

We  expand  our  facts  and  our  figures  to  the  vastness  of  a 
balloon  filled  with  gas. 

Every  now  and  then,  Providence  gives  us  a  man  gifted 
to  pierce  through  mere  externalities  to  the  inner  life  of  things. 
His  mission  is  to  teach  his  generation  that  bigness  is  not 
excellence,  to  place  in  their  true  light  the  ideals  without  con- 
formity to  which  size  and  show  are  but  sham. 

Such  was  the  gift  and  such  the  vocation  of  Carlyle.  We 
love  him  for  his  hatred  of  shams.  But  he  lacked  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth  which  alone  gives  us  the  ideal.  He  knew  that  there 
must  be  "an  intelligence  at  the  heart  of  things;"  but  he 
knew  not  the  word  which  that  intelligence  has  spoken  to  His 
creatures,  and  so  he  became  a  pessimist  and  a  scold. 

Such,  too,  was  the  gift  and  such  the  mission  of  Emerson. 
We  honor  him  for  his  discontent  with  external  things,  for  his 
aspiration  after  the  transcendental  realities.  But  he,  too,  had 
been  robbed  by  heredity  of  the  treasure  of  the  truth ;  and  so 
he  comes  sadly  near  to  being  simply  a  pantheistic  dreamer. 

Such  is  the  gift  and  such  the  mission  of  Bishop  Spalding. 
To  a  philosophic  penetration  and  an  artistic  genius  fully  equal, 
in  my  opinion,  to  those  of  Carlyle  and  Emerson,  he  unites  a 
profound  knowledge  of  the  fullness  of  truth  bestowed  on  man- 
kind by  the  Savior  of  the  world.  Together  with  the  genius 
of  critic,  poet,  and  philosopher;  he  possesses  the  heart  of  a 
Priest.  No  wonder,  then,  that  he  has  done  truer  and  nobler 
and  more  useful  work  than  either  Carlyle  or  Emerson.  He 
had  not,  like  them,  the  misfortune  of  being  hampered  from 
the  start  with  an  inheritance  of  political,  social  and  theological 
fetters  which  it  cost  their  best  energies  to  escape  from,  and 
which  had  scarred  and  crippled  them  for  life.  America  gave 
him  unfettered  limbs,  and  the  grand  old  Apostolic  Church 
endowed  him  with  the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  And 
so,  without  hindrance,  his  genius  has  expanded  in  the  full,  free 
light  of  the  true,  the  beautiful  and  the  good,  and  therefore, 
when  from  the  fullness  of  his  heart  he  has  utterd  words  of 
wisdom  to  his  fellow-Catholics  and  his  fellow-Americans, 
there  has  been  in  them  no  sound  of  intellectual  uncertainty, 
no  bitterness  of  the  heart,  no  despair  of  the  soul,  but  teachings 
of  light  and  love,  of  wisdom  and  joy. 


jd  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

He  views  all  things  in  the  light  of  their  ideals.  To  him, 
the  Church  is  simply  what  it  is  in  the  mind  of  God,  that  is, 
the  Body  of  Christ,  the  external  organization  of  religion,  the 
embodiment  in  the  life  of  mankind  of  faith  and  hope  and  love. 
This  alone  is  to  him  the  living  Church  of  Christ ;  the  practical 
realization  of  this  the  only  thing  that  churchmen  can  rightly 
boast  of,  or  rather  give  thanks  for.  With  mere  addition  of 
church  members  and  multiplication  of  church  means  he  has 
been  nobly  impatient.  In  words  of  matchless  force  and 
eloquence  he  has  reminded  us  of  the  ideal,  warned  us  of  the 
ideal,  scourged  us  with  the  ideal.  Few  men  have  possessed 
to  such  a  degree  the  power  of  scorn.  May  he  continue  to  use 
it,  and  with  redoubled  force,  until  the  last  remnant  of  mere 
statistical  boastfulness,  of  mere  externalism  and  phariseeism 
shall  have  disappeared  from  among  us. 

In  like  manner  he  has  upheld  and  insisted  on  the  ideal  of 
our  country.  To  him  it  has  meant  not  a  geographical  area, 
however  rich  in  nature's  treasures,  nor  the  gathering  of  so 
many  millions  of  men  under  a  certain  flag  of  a  certain  govern- 
ment, nor  the  incomparable  multiplying  of  productions  and 
piling  up  of  wealth. 

It  has  meant  the  promotion  of  human  welfare  under  the 
fullest  influences  of  the  best  civilization,  under  the  untram- 
meled  reign  of  freedom,  of  civil  quality,  of  even-handed 
justice,  of  popular  comfort  and  well  being;  of  enlightenment, 
culture,  refinement,  religion.  Any  boasting  of  American  prog- 
ress which  did  not  mean  all  that  has  been  to  him  mere  empty 
bombast,  and  the  boasters  have  oft  times  smarted  under  the  lash 
of  his  indignant  eloquence.  May  the  lash  lose  none  of  its 
weight  or  its  sting,  for  the  days  of  humbug  are  not  yet 
ended. 

To  his  clear  intuition,  religion  and  culture  are  two  outpour- 
ings of  the  Divine  Life  into  the  life  of  mankind;  and  man's 
chief  duty  is  to  welcome  them  and  respond  to  them.  Hence 
no  one  in  our  day  has  spoken  so  persistently,  so  truly,  so  beau- 
tifully concerning  life  and  the  duty  of  right  living.  Life  has 
been  to  him  the  summing  up  of  all  powers  and  opportunities, 
right  living  the  summing  up  of  all  duties,  the  higher  life  the 
summing  up  of  all  aspirations.  To  live  for  the  best  has  been 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  57 

his  own  aim ;  to  make  it  the  aim  of  all  whose  minds  and  hearts 
he  could  reach  has  been  his  constant  endeavor.  As  priest,  as 
poet,  as  philosopher,  he  has  striven  unceasingly  to  bring 
religion  and  culture  into  closer  relationship  in  the  life  of  his 
generation,  to  make  religion  more  cultured  and  culture  more 
religious  in  the  thought  and  action  of  our  age.  'Twas  this 
that  made  him  the  first  and  strongest  influence  for  the  founding 
of  the  Catholic  University  of  America,  and  only  the  constant 
inbreathing  of  that  same  spirit  can  make  the  institution  a  vital 
and  uplifting  potency  in  our  country's  life. 

To  fit  him  for  so  lofty  a  mission,  Providence  has  endowed 
him  with  a  marvelous  gift  of  artistic  expression.  To  my  mind, 
no  American  has  equalled  Bishop  Spalding  in  the  power  of 
uttering  beautiful  and  noble  thoughts  in  beautiful  and  noble 
language.  And  I  know  of  but  one  other  American  who  can 
compare  with  him  in  breadth  and  loftiness  of  view  and  in  force 
of  noblest  inspiration.  That  other  is  Father  Hecker,  and 
therefore  at  one  period  Providence  brought  them  together. 
Side  by  side  they  stood  and  looked  out  on  the  wondrous  pano- 
rama of  God's  ways  with  men.  Then  Providence  separated 
their  paths,  that  they  might  tell  mankind  of  the  glorious  vision, 
— one  in  the  thrilling  tones  of  the  model  missionary,  the  other 
in  the  loftier  eloquence  of  the  philosopher  and  the  Bishop. 

That  grandest  of  works  Bishop  Spalding  has  done  untir- 
ingly and  well  these  twenty-five  years.  And  his  last  sweet 
utterances,  in  "God  and  the  Soul,"  prove  that  his  wings  show 
no  signs  of  weakness  or  weariness.  May  they  long  continue 
to  soar  to  sublimer  heights.  From  my  heart  I  pray,  long  life 
to  the  sage  of  Peoria,  who  has  done  more  than  any  living  man 
to  make  us  appreciate  and  love  the  ideal  of  our  Church  and  the 
ideal  of  our  Country. 


THE  TOAST-MASTER. 

Respected  Fathers: 

It  is  well  that  the  story  of  this  Diocese  should  be  told  by 
one  who  was  on  the  ground  when  our  Host  took  charge  of  the 
field.  He  has  witnessed  the  initiative,  and  he  knows  present 
conditions.  I  introduce  to  you  Dean  Keating  of  Ottawa,  a 


38  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

strong,  earnest  and  brilliant  advocate  of  the  cause  we  preach 
and  plead,  vigilant  and  painstaking,  and  ever  ready  to  con- 
form to  the  wishes  of  our  great  Jubilarian,  in  those  things 
that  make  for  the  interest  of  the  Church,  and  the  progress  and 
advancement  of  Catholic  education.  The  subject  of  his  remarks 
will  be — "The  Diocese  of  Peoria." 


ADDRESS  OF  DEAN  KEATING. 

"OUR  DIOCESE." 

With  good  reason  we  rejoice  today.  Our  Diocese  and 
her  illustrious  head  have  journeyed  together  for  twenty-five 
years,  and  their  company-keeping  has  been  mutually  satis- 
factory. The  past  has  been  one  of  triumph — ever-continued 
success ;  the  future,  abounding  in  promise,  will  be  an  incentive 
to  never-ceasing  exertion. 

In  dealing  briefly  with  this  subject  it  would  seem  that  bare 
submitting  of  facts  is  infinitely  preferable  to  any  mere  elegance 
of  diction. 

When  separation  took  place  from  the  grand  old  Diocese 
of  Chicago,  and  the  present  Ordinary  came  amongst  us,  I 
would  not  say  the  outlook  was  uninviting,  but  it  most  certainly 
showed  the  necessity  of  earnest,  patient  work  with  a  wise,  intel- 
ligent, executive  to  point  out  the  way,  and  the  Lord  smiled 
upon  Peoria  and  sent  as  her  first  Bishop  the  man  of  the  hour, 
the  man  of  the  day — John  L.  Spalding. 

The  Priests  were  few,  three  or  four  schools  had  a  sickly 
existence,  and  the  Churches,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  were 
mere  make-shifts,  built  in  missionary  times  to  keep  alive  the 
Faith  amongst  a  scattered  and  moving  people.  They  had 
answered  their  purpose  and  should  now  give  way  to  Temples 
more  seemly  and  in  keeping  with  the  worship  of  the  Living 
God. 

The  new  Head  was  indefatigable.  He  seemed  to  be 
everywhere,  and  by  advice  and  example  electrified  Priests  and 
people. 

His  Omnipresent  Ideal,  upon  which  his  whole  life  has  been 
molded,  was  presented  with  thrilling  effect  to  all  classes,  "Seek 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  jp 

ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  justice,  and  all  things 
shall  be  added  to  you."  Like  the  Divine  Master,  he  denied 
himself  the  ordinary  comforts  of  life,  was  ever  humble  and 
considerate,  and  during  his  first  years  lived  in  a  dingy  house, 
little  better  than  a  shanty,  and  seemed  ill  at  ease,  wholly  non- 
plussed, when  his  thoughtful,  loving  Priests  presented  him 
with  a  home  more  worthy  of  his  position. 

Can  you  wonder  that  headway  has  been  made  that  the  most 
optimistic  could  not  conceive? 

We  have  now  a  Catholic  population  of  120,000,  one 
hundred  and  eighty-one  Priests,  two  hundred  and  fourteen 
churches,  three  colleges  and  academies  for  boys,  nine  academies 
for  young  ladies,  sixty-one  Parochial  schools,  two  orphan 
asylums,  seven  hospitals,  one  home  for  aged  poor,  and  one 
industrial  and  reform  school. 

There  is  manifest  on  every  hand  striking  evidence  of  a 
splendidly  organized  Diocese.  Magnificent,  imposing  churches 
greet  us  on  all  sides,  and  large,  commodious  school  structures, 
well  equipped  with  the  modern  appliances,  make  provision  for 
the  rising  generation.  The  old,  the  orphan  and  the  wayward 
are  cared  for,  and  the  number  of  ecclesiastical  students  is  suffi- 
cient for  all  the  demands  upon  the  Holy  Ministry. 

The  very  best  of  good  feeling  and  brotherly  spirit  prevails 
in  the  Priesthood,  and  the  Bishop  is  the  recognized  Father  of 
all.  Where  he  might  readily  command,  it  is  more  pleasing  to 
him  to  suggest,  and  it  is  the  pride  and  ambition  of  his  devoted 
Clergy  to  anticipate  his  every  wish,  believing  implicitly  in  the 
soundness  of  his  judgment  and  the  absolute  disinterestedness 
of  his  motives. 

We  are  full  of  supreme  happiness  to  have  so  many  eminent 
Ecclesiastics,  distinguished  princes  of  the  Church,  join  with 
us  in  the  Silver  Anniversary  of  the  founding  of  "Our 
Diocese"  and  consecration  of  its  first  head,  and  with  all  respect 
and  deference  we  assure  them  we  will  continue  in  a  course  not 
unworthy  of  the  name  already  won  by  the  gifted  Prelate  in 
charge. 

With  Bishop  Spalding  in  the  van,  there  can  be  no  failure; 
at  the  sound  of  his  clarion  voice  the  best  energies  are  aroused, 
noblest  thoughts  stimulated  and  sacrifices  welcomed  with  joy. 


40  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

We  are  deservedly  proud  of  Our  Diocese  and  its  zealous 
Priesthood. 

In  behalf  of  every  Priest  and  the  whole  Laity  I  tender  to 
our  Bishop  the  deepest,  sincerest  respect  of  all.  He  possesses 
our  unlimited  confidence,  our  unswerving  fidelity,  and  may  a 
beneficent  Providence  grant  many,  many  years  of  health  and 
happiness  to  the  thoughtful  educator,  practical  ruler,  ideal 
ecclesiastic  and  peerless  Christian  gentleman,  John  Lancaster 
Spalding  of  "Our  Diocese." 


THE  TOAST-MASTER. 

Honored  Guests: 

The  German  Catholics — Priests  and  laity  of  this  Diocese — 
have  worked  side  by  side  with  us  for  the  best  interests  of 
Church  and  School.  They  can,  however,  claim  unstinted  praise 
and  deserve  special  mention  in  the  building  up  of  our  Hospitals 
and  other  Institutions  of  mercy.  In  behalf  of  this  zealous  and 
progressive  nationality,  Dean  Greve  has  been  chosen  to  offer 
felicitations  to  our  Host.  He  is  a  man  known  to  all  for  his 
great  virtues  and  attainments  and  his  exemplary  life.  He  has 
accepted  the  invitation  to  speak  on  the  subject — "A  Tribute 
From  the  German  Element." 

ADDRESS   OF   DEAN    GREVE. 

"A  TRIBUTE  FROM  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT." 

The  air,  it  seems,  is  still  vibrating  from  the  echo  of  the 
speakers  who  were  gleaning  in  the  fields  of  eloquence  and 
carried  off  golden  sheaves.  The  reapers  have  left,  with 
exquisite  delicacy,  a  small  gleaning  for  me. 

It  gives  me  very  sincere  pleasure  to  address,  with  a  cordial 
and  heart-felt  delight,  this  illustrious  assemblage,  as  it  repre- 
sents in  an  eminent  degree  that  friendly  feeling  which  exists 
among  the  respective  members  of  the  Clergy.  A  kind  forbear- 
ance I  know  I  shall  have  from  you  in  my  most  inadequate 
efforts  to  speak  of  the  Clergy  of  German  parentage  worthily. 
I  am  thankful  for  the  opportunity  afforded  to  express  their 
sentiments. 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  41 

We  all  are  proud  we  are  Americans.  We  are  in  a  country 
that  we  call  the  best  on  the  habitable  globe,  because  there  is 
more  liberty  here  than  there  is  anywhere  else.  We  are  undei 
a  system  of  government  where  the  avenues  to  distinction  are 
open  to  all.  Opportunities  are  so  universal,  the  laborer  of 
today  may  become  a  capitalist  of  tomorrow,  that  those  who 
could  not  well  succeed  in  their  native  land  are  living  under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances  here  in  this  country.  This 
land  has  done  more  for  all  races  than  all  other  countries  under 
heaven.  Nobody  should  forget  that  America  is  kinder  to  him 
than  his  native  land,  no  matter  what  place  he  comes  from. 
Throwing  to  the  winds  all  prejudice,  all  partisanship,  we  are 
working  as  men,  as  Americans,  as  lovers  and  friends  of  justice, 
as  patriots,  as  Christians,  as  Priests  for  the  weal  of  the  country, 
for  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  for  the  glory  of  God.  This 
country  is  an  asylum  for  every  race,  where  the  members  of 
families  can  sit  with  happy  faces  and  tender  eyes  at  peace  by 
their  own  firesides,  under  the  segis  of  the  glorious  banner  of 
liberty.  We  all,  as  Americans,  hate  nationalities,  but  we  cher- 
ish patriotism;  we  all  have  the  best  interests  of  the  people  in 
common  at  heart. 

The  American  citizens  of  German  blood,  whether  born  in 
this  country  or  whose  cradle  stood  upon  German  soil,  inhaling 
the  air  of  sweet  freedom,  participate  in  the  development  of  the 
intellectual  and  material  resources  of  the  land.  Their  great 
achievements  upon  all  the  fields  of  human  activity,  whereby 
they  enrich  the  civilization  of  the  human  race,  are  well  known. 
In  all  the  walks  of  life  you  meet  traces  of  their  zeal  and  labor 
both  to  establish  our  republic  and  to  sustain  it  in  time  of  war 
as  well  as  in  time  of  peace.  Germans  lent  their  service  to 
America  when  it  struggled  for  its  freedom  and  independence. 
German  heroes  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion  are  glorying  in 
the  array  of  the  brave  chiefs  of  our  nation,  and  many  a  cour- 
ageous soldier  has  shed  his  blood  for  the  land  of  his  adoption, 
to  whom  the  Nation  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude.  They  always 
put  their  shoulder  to  the  wheel  to  promote  the  general  welfare 
of  the  community,  be  it  in  agriculture,  industry,  trade,  com- 
merce, statesmanship,  art  or  literature.  Our  own  city  owes 
a  fair  percentage  of  its  healthy  and  steady  growth  to  the 


42  'Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

German  element.  The  amalgamation  of  the  various  races  with 
their  best  natural  gifts  and  under  the  inspiration  of  a  great 
future,  changed  a  nation  of  weakness  and  poverty  into  one  of 
might  and  opulence  that  all  the  powers  of  the  earth  have  to 
respect  and  consult. 

But  this  country  is  more  than  an  asylum  for  us  all.  It  is 
the  land  of  promise  to  us  Catholics.  Religion  and  Church 
enjoy  full  freedom  here.  A  large  proportion  of  the  Ger- 
mans are  Catholics,  they  have  worked  faithfully  and  zeal- 
ously with  their  co-laborers  for  the  interest  of  the  Mother 
Church.  They  are,  I  think,  not  unjustly  classed  among  the 
pillars  of  Church,  school  and  home.  They  are  not  slow  to  build 
and  decorate  houses  of  worship.  They  are  also  proud  of  the 
schools  which  they  erect  and  run  at  their  own  expense  to  im- 
part the  essential  principles  of  good  citizenship,  religion  and 
morality  to  their  children.  Church  and  school  are  linked 
closely  in  their  view.  Nor  are  benevolence  or  charity  strange  to 
them.  By  means  of  orphanages  they  save  the  little  ones  from 
temporal  misery  and  eternal  ruin;  they  prove  themselves  good 
and  true  Samaritans  by  -their  hospitals  and  other  charitable  in- 
stitutions, wherein  their  faithful  sons  and  noble  daughters  sacri- 
fice their  lives  to  alleviate  the  burden  of  human  misery,  pain  and 
malady,  and  to  prepare  the  dying  for  a  happy  eternity.  All  these 
nurseries  of  science  and  benevolence  attest  the  immense  achieve- 
ments of  Christianity  in  this  country,  no  matter  what  nation  we 
belong  to.  From  a  little  spark  thrown  here  and  there  into  this 
world  desert,  it  grew  to  a  mighty  flame,  whose  light  and  lustre 
are  spread  all  over  the  land  to  encourage  the  good,  to  instruct 
the  ignorant,  to  aid  the  needy,  to  nurse  the  sick,  to  those  that 
are  outside  the  pale  of  Catholicity  to  spread  its  benediction 
within  and  without.  Let  it  go  on  then  with  increased  zeal  and 
redoubled  activity  and  be  assured  that  as  long  as  union  and 
harmony  prevail  between  clergy  and  laity,  the  Catholic  Church 
will  march  on  triumphantly  under  the  guidance  of  heaven  in 
America.  We,  as  priests  of  the  Diocese  of  Peoria,  ci*1ebrating 
the  Silver  Jubilee  both  of  the  diocese  and  of  our  Bii  )p,  look 
with  solemn  pride  upon  the  Ordinary  given  to  us  by  ine  hand 
of  the  Divine  Providence  as  a  man  of  refined  culture  and  as 
a  master  of  the  German  tongue.  In  his  study  of  the  world  of 


LIBRARY 
Of  THE 
UNJVEflSW  Uf 


RT.  REV.  P.  J.  O'REILLY,  D.  D. 
Auxiliary  Bishop  of  Peoria 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  43 

literature  he  transcended  the  narrow  limits  of  race  and  coun- 
try and  entered  the  rich  mines  of  German  science,  both  in 
poetry  and  philosophy.  He  has  gathered  some  select  flowers 
from  the  German  garden  of  song  and  translated  them  into  his 
mother  language  without  sacrificing  their  original  melody. 
He  came  across  precious  stores  in  our  much  admired  Goethe. 
In  his  life  object  to  spread  higher  education  both  by  word 
and  deed,  he  places  before  us  our  poet  as  educator.  With  the 
same  easy  mastery  wherewith  he  tests  poetry,  he  also  takes  up 
the  current  of  German  philosophy,  the  shrine  of  philosophy. 
He  finds  great  interest  in  the  direction  in  which  the  younger 
German  school  is  moving.  Where  are  those  men  with  counte- 
nances serene  and  majestic,  with  dignified  port  and  noble  at- 
tire, with  polished  language  and  classical  air,  if  not  within  the 
precincts  of  tender  religion,  that  harmonious  instrument  which 
pitches  the  tone  of  their  eloquence.  No  loftier  ideal  can  be 
held  up  to  the  emulation  of  ingenuous  youth  than  our  good 
and  dear  Jubilarian.  With  such  a  chief  I  think  we  cannot  be 
wholly  ignoble. 

Ad  multos  annos ! 


THE  TOAST-MASTER. 

My  Friends: 

Not  the  least  among  things  that  give  delight  and  unbounded 
satisfaction  on  this  Day  of  Thanksgiving,  is  the  Consecration 
of  the  Cathedral.  To  make  this  possible  the  right  man  was 
needed.  He  must  be  a  man  who  had  the  courage  and  ability 
to  meet  a  lingering  debt  and  cancel  it  in  short  order,  a  man 
earnest  and  forceful,  and  who  could  enlighten  and  persuade 
and  marshal  forces;  and  these  conditions  were  met  and  ful- 
filled by  the  Rev.  Francis  J.  O'Reilly,  Chancellor,  who  is 
invited  to  respond  to  the  Toast — "Our  Jubilee  Day." 


44  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

ADDRESS  OF  CHANCELLOR  O'REILLY. 

"OUR  JUBILEE  DAY." 

In  celebrating  the  Silver  Jubilee  of  its  Bishop,  the  Diocese 
of  Peoria  offers  itself  today  for  measurement  While  it  would 
turn  away  from  everything  that  might  savor  of  boastfulness, 
it  does  feel  pardonable  pride  in  vigor  and  strength  that  find 
expression  in  other  than  twenty-five  years  of  existence.  From 
whatever  point  of  view  one  cares  to  consider  the  years,  they 
have  been  characteristic  of  the  growth  of  the  American  Church 
and  are  replete  with  real  interest. 

We  celebrate  this  day  because  we  feel  we  are  citizens  of  no 
mean  country.  We  do  not  claim  all  the  excellences  of  Amer- 
ica. We  have  not  the  hill  scenery  of  the  East,  with  winding 
streams  and  fertile  valleys,  wildwood  brooks,  sudden  vistas 
of  fretful  fell  and  purple  cliff;  we  have  not  the  massive 
plateaus  and  grim  canons  of  the  Colorado;  neither  have  we 
leagues  of  dead  sand  where  no  green  things  grow,  and  no 
birds  build;  nor  have  we  on  the  yon  side  a  "Sea  of  Peace" 
awaiting  us — just  Iowa  and  Missouri.  Ours  the  opulent  life 
of  prairies  rich  in  the  exuberance  of  their  golden  harvests. 
Had  our  visitors  come  to  us  a  few  weeks  later  we  had  shown 
them  the  waving  corn  chased  by  mingled  sunshine  and  shadow, 
wooed  by  dew  of  night  and  carol  of  the  lark,  tossing  itself  like 
ocean  waves,  restless  at  restraint;  to  many  shores  its  yellow 
grain  is  borne  and  many  tables  bend  beneath  its  wealtk  In  a 
land  whose  very  fruitfulness  makes  us  necessarily  close  to  the 
earth,  that  voice  is  akin  to  divine  which  calls  us  to  things  of 
the  mind  and  higher  life,  and  we  have  been  made  to  feel,  in 
Emerson's  thought,  at  least,  that  "Wherever  a  man  stands  the 
whple  arch  of  the  sky  is  over  him,"  and  that  even  here  not 
small  things  can  be  done. 

The  foundation  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  these  parts  was 
laid  in  the  heroic.  The  first  settlement  in  the  Middle  West 
found  a  halting  place  just  across  the  river.  The  name  given 
the  beginning  of  the  white  man's  dwelling  here  tells  us  that  La 
Salle's  journey  ings  brought  him  many  disappointments  and 
disasters,  remembering  which,  he  called  the  place  Fort  Creve 
Coeur.  On  the  same  stream,  a  few  miles  further  up,  Father 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  45 

Marquette  celebrated  Mass  a  hundred  years  before  this  nation 
was  born.  Hard  by  Father  Gabriel  de  la  Ribourde  offered  up 
his  life  in  martyr-fate.  When  finally  the  struggle  for  liberty 
came,  Father  Gibault,  going  even  beyond  his  sturdy  confrere, 
Father  Farmer  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  refused  to  help  the 
recruiting  service  of  the  English  by  declining  to  become  chap- 
lain of  a  regiment,  to  be  known  as  the  "Roman  Catholic  Vol- 
unteers," Father  Gibault  rendered  such  active  service  in 
dislodging  the  Royalists  in  the  Northwest  that  the  Legisla- 
ture of  Virginia  voted  him  public  thanks  in  1780.  McCarthy 
and  Charleville,  captaining  two  regiments  of  Illinois  volun- 
teers in  the  same  war,  tell  us  how  the  shamrock  and  the  lily 
found  their  way  to  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi. 

All  this  an  augury  that  as  heroic  souls  wrought  then  for  re- 
ligion and  liberty,  others  not  less  resolute  though  less  stim- 
ulated by  environment,  would  be  found  not  inactive  nor  silent 
in  the  later  and  more  peaceful  surroundings.  By  nature  we 
have  been  set  down  here  in  the  heart  of  the  continent  for 
peaceful  pursuits.  "The  citizen,  standing  in  the  doorway  of 
his  home,  contented  on  his  threshold,  his  family  gathered 
about  his  hearthstone,  while  the  evening  of  a  well  spent  day 
closes  in  scenes  and  sounds  that  are  dearest,  he  shall  save  the 
republic,  when  the  drum  tap  is  futile  and  the  barracks  are  ex- 
hausted." 

An  American  traveler  tells  us  that  the  lake  country  of 
England  is  not  finer  than  the  lake  district  of  Wisconsin.  But 
in  its  time  it  has  been  the  home  of  great  minds  and  hearts. 
Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Southey,  DeQuincey,  Christopher 
North,  Charles  Lamb  and  Harriet  Martineau  lived  along  the 
road  that  winds  among  the  hills  and  lakes.  There  is,  after  all, 
nothing  great  in  the  world  but  man — real  contributions  to  the 
heritage  of  the  race  center  round  the  names  of  men  and 
women.  If,  then,  we  are  to  have  any  place  among  cherished 
memories,  is  not  that  to  come  through  men  who,  though  living, 
yet,  are  so  rich  in  gifts  that  many  become  sharers,  and  if  such 
dwell  here  may  we  not  lift  out  voices  in  joyous  acclaim?  Some- 
how, I  think  of  St.  Francis  Assissi  entering  Rome.  It  was 
evening — the  rays  of  the  setting  sun  were  slanting  on  the 
Campagna  and  flooding  the  lofty  terrace  of  the  Lateran  Pal- 


46  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

ace,  where  a  group  of  splendidly  attired  churchmen  were  walk- 
ing, drinking  in  the  balmy  breath  of  the  evening  air.  One 
walked  apart,  simply  clad,  but  with  the  mien  of  a  monarch; 
on  his  lordly  brow  sat  gravely  the  care  of  the  great  world's 
affairs.  Philip  Augustus  of  France,  John  of  England,  Otho 
of  Germany,  Pedro  of  Arragon,  had  all  been  humbled  to  the 
very  dust  before  his  footstool.  Frederick,  the  young,  the  bril- 
liant Emperor,  the  last  of  the  great  Hohenstauffen  line,  was 
his  ward,  while  the  conquest  of  Constantinople  by  the  Cru- 
saders brought  the  whole  East  under  the  control  of  his  hands. 
Innocent,  immersed  in  care,  had  few  words  to  waste  upon 
the  tattered,  stained  traveler.  One  finds  it  difficult  to  be  harsh 
with  Innocent  for  the  scant  courtesy  bestowed  upon  Francis. 
That  night  Innocent's  sleep  was  haunted  by  a  vision.  He  saw 
a  palm  tree  slowly  growing  beneath  his  feet  and  rising  into  a 
beautiful  tree;  he  saw  the  Lateran  Basilica  falling  into  ruins 
and  a  certain  poor  man  of  humble  and  despised  aspect  stoop- 
ing beneath  the  burden  and  sustaining  it  "Truly,"  cried  the 
Pontiff,  "this  is  he  who  by  labor  and  doctrine  shall  sustain  the 
Church  of  Christ,"  and  Innocent  granted  Francis'  request  for 
the  establishing  of  his  order.  Commenting  upon  this  act,  an 
English  writer  says :  "Innocent  by  that  day's  work  added  200 
years  to  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  Church." 

Whether  we  accept  the  statement  as  true  or  not,  the  view 
is  in  the  main  correct.  The  Church  stands  or  falls,  it  makes 
progress  or  it  recedes;  it  is  vital  or  cumbers  the  ground  ac- 
cording as  she  finds  captains  and  rulers,  leaders  and  wise 
Bishops  to  guide  her  destiny. 

And  if  you  to-day  with  me  but  recall  Pericles  standing  by 
the  blue  Mediterranean  and  pronouncing  words  of  eulogy  over 
Greeks  who  had  fallen  in  defense  of  their  country,  and  if  you 
go  to  Athens  and  listen  to  the  unarmed  eloquence  of  Demos- 
thenes, and  know  that  they  have  lived  again  in  an  awakened 
and  cultured  mind,  and  if  you  could  hear  the  shout  of  liberty 
going  up  even  in  dark  continents  and  know  that  not  one 
syllable  but  has  been  heard  by  that  liberty  loving  ear,  and  if 
you  could  hear  that  voice  raised  in  warning  against  our  wan- 
dering in  untried  fields  and  reckless  breakings  asunder  of 
bonds  written  for  our  guidance,  and  if  you  could  hear  the 


John  Lancaster  Spalding       „  47 

calls  to  a  noble  and  nobler  priesthood — amid  it  all,  if  you  could 
see  the  fraternities  grow  around  us,  you  would  still  more  won- 
der that  to  literature  there  should  have  been  added  a  single 
line,  since  on  all  sides  under  his  guiding  hand  there  has  arisen 
a  growth  of  school  and  church  that  to-day  marks  a  trans- 
formed city — a  diocese  made  new.  This  is  why  we  celebrate, 
and  this  is  why  the  May  days  of  1877  an<i  I9°2  are  inseparably; 
linked  with  the  name  of  John  Lancaster  Spalding. 


THE  TOAST-MASTER. 

Brothers  of  the  Episcopate  and  of  the  clergy — With 
friends  to  cheer  and  the  multitude  acclaiming,  yet  there  is 
always  special  joy  and  delight  in  the  greetings  that  come 
from  home.  The  scenes  of  childhood  and  especially  in  the 
country,  the  Church  and  school,  however  humble,  the  neigh- 
bors and  friends  of  our  fathers,  the  scenery — that  while  it  may 
not  enchant,  is  to  us  of  priceless  value — all  these  form  a  sacred 
picture  and  inspire  a  theme,  that  will  always  find  a  place  in 
song  and  story.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you 
Dean  Hogarty  of  Kentucky,  the  popular  and  estimable  pastor 
of  Bishop  Spalding's  native  parish.  He  comes  here  to  present 
the  good  wishes  and  undying  friendship  of  a  people  that 
never  forget  to  honor  the  illustrious  names  that  shed  lustre  on 
a  grand  and  faithful  colony.  His  subject  will  be — "Congratu- 
lations From  Home." 

ADDRESS  OF  DEAN  HOGARTY. 

"CONGRATULATIONS  FROM  HOME." 

Right  Reverend  Bishop  Spalding: 

On  this,  the  Silver  Jubilee  of  your  consecration  as  Bishop, 
when  so  many  princes  and  prelates  of  the  Church  have  assem- 
bled to  proclaim  the  achievements  of  twenty-five  years  of  ardu- 
ous labors,  and  by  their  appreciation  of  the  glorious  work 
already  accomplished  to  inspire  your  heart  with  new  courage 
for  the  yet  greater  work  before  you,  may  we  hope  that  a  hum- 
ble tribute  from  your  childhood's  home  will  not  be  wholly 
unwelcome? 


48  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

Amid  the  plaudits  of  the  hierachy,  of  those  who-  have 
shared  with  you  the  labor  and  the  honors  that  are  due  to  a 
long  and  eminently  successful  career  as  worthy  successors  of 
the  Apostles,  the  congregation  of  St.  Augustine's  in  Lebanon, 
Ky.,  can  only  hope  that  a  heartfelt  greeting  from  the  friends 
and  companions  of  your  childhood,  who  have  sympathized  with 
your  every  effort,  and  rejoiced  at  every  successive  triumph 
of  your  zeal  and  of  your  genius,  will  be  acceptable  as  an  as- 
surance that,  in  your  case,  the  prophet  is  not  without  honor  in 
his  own  country. 

When  thrilled  with  joyous  pride  at  each  recurring  evi- 
dence of  your  zeal  and  eminent  abilities,  and  of  the  recognition 
so  fully  accorded  them  throughout  the  Christian  world,  we 
have  at  all  times  claimed  you  as  our  own — the  product  of  our 
own  Kentucky  home,  toward  which,  we  feel  assured,  your 
heart  ever  turns,  in  such  moments  of  leisure  as  may  be  per- 
mitted, from  the  engrossing  labors  of  your  busy  life. 

There  are  the  friends  and  companions  of  your  youth;  in 
the  veins  of  many  of  whom  the  life  blood  flows  from  the  same 
common  source ;  who,  with  you,.ar,e  descendants  of  those  hardy 
pioneers  of  St  Mary's  County  of  Catholic  Maryland,  and  who 
recall,  with  affectionate  detail,  your  youthful  trials  and  tri- 
umphs, the  friendships  of  boyhood's  days,  and  the  intimate  as- 
sociations of  budding  manhood.  They  proudly  dwell  upon  the 
fact  that  there,  amid  the  beautiful  scenery  and  in  the  bracing 
air  of  that  favored  land,  within  sound  of  the  bells  of  St.  Au- 
gustine's, the  faculties  of  your  youthful  mind  expanded,  and 
the  aspirations  of  your  heart  were  directed  and  ennobled  by 
the  glorious  traditions  of  a  Nerincx,  a  Badin,  a  Fournier,  an 
Abell  and  other  zealous  priests,  whose  devoted  labors  yet  bear 
abundant  fruit  in  the  lives  of  our  people,  long  after  they  have 
been  called  to  their  reward. 

When,  as  a  young  man,  you  left  the  scenes  of  your  boy- 
hood to  procure  the  thorough  equipment  then  obtainable  only 
in  Europe,  you  had  already  given  such  evidence  of  strength 
and  symmetry  of  development  that  the  congregation  of  St. 
Augustine's  had  bright  anticipations  of  a  brilliant  and  useful 
career,  and  their  prayers  attended  you  on  your  journey. 

When  you  returned  to  your  native  state,  an  anointed  priest 


Of  THE 


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John  Lancaster  Spalding  49 

of  God,  an  ambassador  of  Christ,  filled  with  holy  zeal,  en- 
dowed with  untiring  energy,  with  mind  matured  and  exquis- 
itely trained  for  the  work  that  was  before  you,  we  knew  that 
the  fruition  of  our  hopes  could  not  be  long  delayed,  that  your 
efforts  would  compel,  unsought,  the  admiration  and  applause 
of  the  world.  We  knew  that  your  capacity  for  useful  and  ef- 
fective work  would  grow  with  the  expanding  opportunities 
for  its  exercise,  and  that  the  field  of  your  influence  would  cor- 
respondingly increase. 

Onward  and  upward  has  ever  been  your  motto,  and  with 
that  boundless  energy  that  is  characteristic  in  your  race  and 
country,  with  an  unquenchable  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  a 
capacity  for  unremitting  labor,  that,  if  not  genius,  is  its  in- 
separable companion,  you  have  accomplished  results  that  are 
the  wonder  and  admiration  of  America  and  of  Europe,  and 
have  added  glory  and  renown  to  the  cause  of  the  Church. 

We  leave  to  others  the  task  of  recounting  those  deeds ;  they 
are  part  of  history ;  from  your  building  of  the  first  church  for 
colored  Catholics  in  the  city  of  Louisville,  yet  standing  as  a 
monument  to  your  priestly  zeal,  to  the  successful  foundation 
of  the  great  Catholic  University  of  America.  But  in  that  his- 
tory, we  feel  special  pride,  and  claim  the  privilege  of  present- 
ing this  testimonial  of  our  affectionate  esteem,  with  the  as- 
surance that,  as  heretofore,  our  prayers  will  ascend  to  the 
throne  of  the  Most  High  that  you  may  long  be  spared  for  yet 
greater  triumphs  in  His  service,  for  His  greater  glory,  and 
that  of  His  Holy  Church  throughout  the  world. 

V.  REV.  J.  A.  HOGARTY, 
HON.  J.  P.  THOMPSON, 
HON.  H.  W.  RIVES, 
Committee  on  Behalf  of  Congregation. 

"What  I  have  done,  to  me  is  nothing  now, 
Or  but  a  vantage  ground,  from  which  I  see 
My  task  still  widening  to  infinity, 

While  o'er  the  past  sinks  the  horizon's  brow." 

A  letter  from  Spalding  Council,  Knights  of  Columbus, 
was  then  read. 


50  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

LETTER  FROM  SPALDING  COUNCIL 
KNIGHTS  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Right  'Reverend  John  Lancaster  Spalding,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of 
Peoria: 

Right  Reverend  and  Dear  Bishop : 

Spalding  Council,  No.  427,  Knights  of  Columbus  of 
Peoria,  111.,  having  honored  itself,  with  your  approval,  by  the 
adoption  of  your  distinguished  name,  and  fully  appreciating 
you  as  a  man,  as  a  citizen,  and  as  a  gentle  but  firm  spiritual 
adviser,  avail  themselves  of  this  opportunity  of  expressing  to 
you  hearty  congratulations  upon  this,  the  twenty-fifth  anni- 
versary of  your  spiritual  guardianship  over  us. 

We  devoutly  pray  to  Almighty  God  to  keep  you  in  His 
tender  care  and  extend  to  you  many  years  of  health  and  happi- 
ness. As  a  slight  evidence  of  our  high  esteem,  we  beg  leave 
to  present  to  you,  in  the  name  of  our  council,  our  certified 
check  for  one  thousand  dollars,  to  be  used  by  you  in  furnishing 
a  permanent  scholarship  at  Spalding  Institute  in  Peoria,  111., 
the  same  to  be  known  as  Spalding  Council,  Knights  of  Colum- 
bus Scholarship.  Having  full  confidence  in  your  judgment,  we 
leave  it  to  you  to  adopt  such  rules  and  regulations  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  this  scholarship  as  you  may  deem  right  and  proper. 

We  beg  leave,  Right  Reverend  Sir,  to  subscribe  ourselves 

your  obedient  servants. 

P.  A.  DONAHUE, 

Grand  Knight. 

WM.  BOURKE, 

GEORGE  KENNEDY,  Financial  Secretary. 

Treasurer.  •', 

May  i,  1902. 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  51 

THE  TOAST-MASTER. 

Your  Eminence  and  Revered  Guests. 

Any  great  occasion  or  grand  festivity  in  this  diocese 
would  seem  incomplete  without  the  presence  of  Dean  Mackin 
of  Rock  Island.  Of  broad  and  generous  views,  spontaneous 
impulse,  genial  and  hospitable;  he  instinctively  brightens  a 
Jubilee  Day,  and  diffuses  sunshine  and  good  cheer.  The  Dean 
is  an  ardent  admirer  of  our  great  and  illustrious  Bishop,  and 
predicts  for  him  a  lofty  and  conspicuous  niche  in  the  temple 
of  the  world's  best  and  most  famous  men.  In  behalf  of  the 
priests  of  the  diocese,  he  has  been  requested  to  present — 
"Greetings  to  Our  Jubilarian." 

ADDRESS  OF  DEAN  MACKIN. 

"GREETINGS  TO  OUR  JUBILARIAN." 

Assembled  to  honor  and  greet  Right  Reverend  John  Lan- 
caster Spalding,  Bishop  of  Peoria,  on  this,  the  twenty-fifth  an- 
niversary of  his  Episcopal  consecration,  we  obey  an  injunc- 
tion of  human  nature  which  prompts  all  people  to  respect  and 
reverence  distinguished  men. 

Few  men  in  this  or  any  country  can  be  accredited  with 
brighter  fame  than  Bishop  Spalding  has  earned.  By  his  learn- 
ing and  tact  he  has  reconciled  people  widely  at  variance  with 
Christian  teachings.  His  masterly  lectures,  delivered  in 
thronged  halls  throughout  this  country,  have  riveted  upon  him 
the  attention  of  the  American  people  and  disposes  them  to  read 
his  books. 

With  "Thoughts  and  Theories  of  Life  and  Education," 
"Means  and  Ends  of  Education,"  "Education  and  Higher 
Life,"  "Opportunity  and  Other  Essays,"  "Aphorisms  and 
Reflections,"  "Songs  from  the  German,"  "God  and  the  Soul ;" 
with  these  books  and  other  writings  the  Right  Reverend 
Bishop  entertains  numerous  classes  of  readers  in  every  part 
of  this  vast  republic.  He  thus  enters  into  the  heart  of  the 
peasant,  into  the  work  shop  of  the  artisan ;  he  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  school  children ;  on  the  desks  of  teachers  and  professors. 


52  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

Priests  and  scholars  read  him;  besides  his  eloquence  sings  all" 
over  the  land,  is  heard  in  Paris  and  resounds  in  Rome. 

The  people  of  this  country,  jealous  of  their  institutions 
and  believing  that  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  on  which  they 
are  based  is  necessary  to  their  perpetuity,  go  to  great  extrava- 
gance in  building  schools  and  endowing  colleges  so  that  means 
and  opportunity  may  be  everywhere  at  hand  to  enable  them  to 
be  thoroughly  trained.  That  this  laudable  intent  might  have 
full  sanction  of  the  American  Hierarchy,  Bishop  Spalding 
used  his  pen  and  tongue  at  home  and  abroad  and  continued  this 
agitation  for  higher  education  until  success  crowned  his  ef- 
forts in  the  establishment  of  the  Catholic  University  at  Wash- 
ington, the  seat  of  government.  Behold  this  center  of  learn- 
ing, the  extension  of  Rome  who  has  civilized  the  world — 
Rome  who  has  seen  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations  and  still  lives 
on  in  undiminished  splendor  to  guide  the  destinies  of  men  and 
to  hold  on  high  the  lamp  of  learning,  burning  as  of  old  with 
brightest  effulgence.  Witness  this  achievement  and  witness 
the  man  who  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  its  accomplishment 

Pass  we  now  from  this  broad  scope  of  public  interest  in 
which  we  have  seen  Bishop  Spalding  play  successfully  a  dis- 
tinguished part  to  the  narrower  confines  of  his  own  diocese  to 
see  the  effort  of  his  great  activity.  Twenty-five  years  ago  this 
Diocese  of  Peoria  was  founded.  It  contains  eighteen  thousand 
five  hundred  and  fifty- four  square  miles  of  territory,  enough  to 
make  several  San  Marino  republics.  In  the  period  of  twenty- 
five  years  you  can  see  the  great  wealth  of  population  and  ter- 
ritorial extension  acquired  by  the  United  States ;  in  a  less  pro- 
portion, but  in  a  degree  not  less  astounding,  in  the  Diocese  of 
Peoria  under  the  rule  of  Bishop  Spalding,  increased  churches, 
schools,  institutes,  colleges,  hospitals,  asylums,  and  convents. 

These  institutions  distributed  among  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  Catholics  justify  the  addition  of  an  auxiliary 
bishop.  It  is  very  fortunate  that  a  man  eminently  qualified 
for  the  position  and  most  acceptable  to  the  priests  was  chosen. 
Fellow  soldiers  in  the  trenches,  be  not  discouraged,  we  have 
a  valiant  and  noble  captain,  who  will  in  time  reward  us  all. 
One  auxiliary  does  not  suffice,  Bishop  Spalding  therefore  re- 
lying on  our  loyalty  counts  on  each  of  his  one  hundred  and 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  55 

eighty  priests  to  prove  as  far  as  possible  in  every  emergency 
a  faithful  auxiliary.  So  we  are  all  in  a  position  of  honor 
and  trust.  This  reciprocity  of  mutual  interest  and  confidence 
makes  the  life  of  Bishop  Spalding  and  his  priests  happy  and 
the  growth  and  development  of  Peoria  Diocese  marvelous. 
Unity  of  co-operation  between  Bishop  Spalding  and  his  priests 
is  not  the  work  of  chance.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  Catholics  spread  over  an  area  of  eighteen  thousand 
five  hundred  and  fifty-four  miles  square  there  is  not  one  child, 
one  man  or  woman  who  has  not  seen  or  heard  Bishop  Spald- 
ing. 

Despite  long  journeys  through  heat  and  cold,  Bishop 
Spalding  is  in  every  village,  town  and  city  in  every  part  of 
his  diocese,  lecturing  and  instructing  his  people.  It  is  his  con- 
stant practice  before  administering  the  sacrament  of  confirma- 
tion to  examine  each  child  in  turn  and  explain  the  meaning  of 
the  words  which  the  child  may  use  in  answer.  Parents  and 
children,  seeing  the  interest  thus  taken  in  their  enlightment,  at 
once  love  him  and  with  tears  pray  for  his  speedy  return.  When 
subsequently  it  is  announced  the  Bishop  will  be  here  in  May  to 
give  confirmation  there  is  joy  in  the  hearts  of  all.  The  priests 
likewise,  with  whom  Bishop  Spalding  associates  as  a  tender 
father  with  his  sons,  long  to  see  him  again  and  again  and,  like 
Peter  and  James  on  the  mount,  would  fain  live  with  him  for- 
ever. 

With  hearts  aglow  with  delight,  Right  Reverend  Bishop, 
at  your  triumphs  at  home  and  abroad,  we,  your  devoted  priests, 
tender  you  our  homage,  our  loyalty,  our  obedience  and  our 
love,  and  we  pray  that  God  may  spare  you  length  of  days  to 
celebrate  your  golden  jubilee.  To  mark  this  event  and  to 
prove  the  sincerity  of  our  words  we  herewith  present  you  a 
token  of  our  appreciation  of  your  great  learning,  great  service 
and  unbounded  merits. 

In  reply  to  this  greeting  of  his  clergy  the  Bishop,  who 
was  visibly  affected,  spoke  as  follows: 


Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 


Whatever  stirs  emotions  disturbs  judgment.  This  most 
beautiful  May  time,  a  great  concourse  of  people,  a  throng  of 
bishops  and  priests  in  symbolic  vesture;  music,  pleading  for 
power  to  utter  the  thought  and  love  of  the  Eternal,  or  burst- 
ing forth  in  swelling  volumes  of  sound  that  roll  and  rise, 
borne  on  viewless  wings,  to  the  throne  of  God ;  rites  and  cere- 
monies, hallowed  by  association  with  the  divinest  faith  and 
the  noblest  memories,  with  the  heroic  sufferings  and  triumphs 
of  millions  of  men  and  women — the  fine  flower  and  fruit  of 
humanity — who  century  after  century  for  more  than  fifty  gen- 
erations have  taken  their  stand  on  the  world-wide  battlefield, 
steadfast  until  swallowed  in  the  vortices  of  visible  things,  to 
relive  in  the  ever-enduring  universe  of  pure  spirit — all  this 
exalts  the  imagination  and  lifts  to  spheres  where  feeling  is 
spontaneous  and  deliberation  difficult. 

For  most  of  us  who  are  gathered  here  the  day  itself  brings 
thoughts  which  for  each  one  are  tender  and  moving,  as  with 
varying  shade  and  circumstance  they  twine  around  the  found- 
ing of  parishes,  the  building  of  churches  and  schools  and 
homes  of  mercy  and  beneficence,  that  in  more  than  a  hundred 
towns  and  villages,  and  on  wide  prairies  amid  the  growing 
corn  and  the  ripening  harvest,  have  risen  at  the  call  of  faith 
and  at  the  promptings  of  a  generosity  that  seems  to  annul 
selfish  impulse,  so  long  as  there  is  good  to  be  done — recollec- 
tions of  youthful  courage,  high  hope  and  pertinacious  labor 
undertaken  for  what  each  one  believed  to  be  most  divine,  and 
endured  for  the  love  of  what  is  holiest.  It  is  inevitable,  there- 
fore, that  emotions  swell  within  us  which  dispose  us  to  accept 
as  truth  words  which  sober  reason  is  reluctant  to  approve. 
But  best  reason  rests  in  Love  from  which  the  universe  has 
sprung,  of  whose  deepest  heart  certainly  our  religion  is  born; 
and  since  from  this  same  source  the  sentiments  which  inspire 
us  to-day  rise  like  a  fountain's  pure,  light-seeking  waters,  why 
may  we  not  believe  and  affirm  that  what  such  emotion  has 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  55 

awakened  and  bodied  forth  in  word  and  deed,  is  very  truth? 
Not  indeed,  logical  or  scientific  truth — a  skeleton  of  formulas 
and  facts — but  the  truth  which  is  borne  in  upon  the  soul  when 
mothers  sing  their  children  to  sleep,  when  lovers  sitting  side 
by  side  watch  the  sun,  sinking  beneath  the  horizon,  and  the 
stars  as  one  by  one  they  smile  from  infinitude  on  the  homes 
of  men ;  such  truth  as  the  flowers  speak,  when  from  their  lowly 
beds  they  look  up  and  laugh  before  us ;  such  as  children  reveal 
and  impersonate  when  heaven  is  mirrored  in  their  pure  eyes 
and  innocent  faces. 

If  truth  were  but  the  naked  fact,  where  should  there  be 
room  for  the  ineffable  charm  which  interfuses  itself  with  the 
glow  of  dawn  and  sunset,  with  the  light  that  falls  from  starlit 
skies  and  from  the  countenances  of  those  we  love;  for  the 
passion  and  patience,  the  trust  and  longing,  the  sacrifice  and 
aspiration,  which  impel  the  soul  to  transcend  the  limitations 
of  time  and  space  and  which  give  to  human  life  its  power  and 
blessedness  ? 

When  we  recall  the  years  that  are  no  more,  the  paths  we 
trod  in  childhood,  the  concert  of  voices  that  in  the  long  ago 
made  the  woodland  ring  with  music,  the  quick  current  of 
youthful  blood  athrill  with  high  hopes  and  noble  resolves,  and 
suddenly  are  made  aware  that  it  has  all  dissolved  into  empti- 
ness and  become  as  though  it  had  never  been,  it  is  not  possible 
to  remain  cold  and  impassive.  When  we  turn  to  the  begin- 
ning of  our  early  manhood,  as  issuing  with  sublime  self-con- 
fidence from  the  portals  of  our  Alma  Mater,  we  vowed  to 
walk  and  work  for  Christ,  to  illumine,  to  guide,  to  strengthen, 
to  console  and  to  save  men,  and  are  made  deeply  conscious 
how  little  our  purposes  have  fulfilled  themselves  in  deeds,  we 
are  softened  and  sobered,  grow  lowly  minded  and  meek,  like 
those  who  contemplate  ruins  which  the  centuries  have 
wrought.  In  such  mood  all  vanity  and  self-complacency  die 
within  us,  and  words  of  praise  and  commendation  sound  like 
mockery. 

The  achievements  of  even  the  genuinely  great,  if  they  be 
considered  in  the  light  of  the  Eternal,  are  insignificant. 

Were  God  not,  the  whole  race  of  man  would  be  no  bet- 
ter than  the  parasites  that  batten  on  decay.  But  God  is,  and 


5<5  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

they  who  have  best  insight  best  know  that  man's  worth  is 
measured  by  the  degree  of  his  kinship  with  Him,  without 
whom  he  would  be  but  a  semblance  and  unreality. 

If  in  any  one  of  us  there  be  aught  that  may  win  approval 
or  awaken  admiration  or  thankfulness,  whether  it  be  truth, 
or  honesty,  or  mildness,  or  intelligence,  or  strength  of  mind, 
or  rectitude,  or  courage,  or  perseverance,  or  humility,  or  love, 
or  piety,  or  unselfishness,  it  is  of,  through,  and  for  God,  from 
whom  all  life  springs,  to  whom  all  hope  looks,  toward  whom 
all  yearning  moves,  on  whom  all  faith  rests,  in  whom  all 
hearts  find  repose. 

In  the  twenty-five  years  on  which  we  now  set  the  seal  of 
eternity,  whatever  may  have  been  well  done  by  any  of  us, 
has  been  done  for  Him  and  by  His  help.  The  field  is  His,  the 
seed  is  His;  His,  the  rain  and  sunshine;  His,  the  vital  force 
that  has  built  unto  itself  a  body  and  brought  about  the  har- 
monic play  of  all  the  members  of  the  organism.  We  have  but 
been  His  servants,  and  had  we  not  been  at  all,  He,  had  He  so 
willed,  would  have  found  others  and  better.  Our  only  merit 
is  that  of  servants  and  true  service  is  our  only  blessedness. 

The  service  we  have  chosen  is  that  which  the  Eternal 
stooped  to  earth  and  wore  human  flesh  to  perform.  It  is  the 
most  beneficent,  the  holiest,  the  helpfulest,  the  most  needful 
which  it  can  fall  to  the  lot  of  man  to  do.  The  task  set  us  is 
to  make  ourselves  and  others  Christ-like  and  God-like. 

If  those  who  profess  to  lead  a  religious  life  have  the 
morals  of  the  crowd  or  worse,  they  are  the  most  contemptible 
and  are,  in  fact,  the  most  despised  of  men;  but  they  who 
have  the  soul,  and  not  merely  the  name  of  priest,  are  divine 
men — are,  in  word  and  deed,  God's  faithfulest  witnesses  to  the 
Truth  that  liberates,  to  the  Love  that  saves  and  beatifies. 

"  Whoso  has  felt  the  Spirit  of  the  Highest 

Cannot  confound  nor  doubt  Him  nor  deny; 
Yea,  with  one  voice,  O  world,  though  thou  deniest, 
Stand  thou  on  this  side,  for  on  that  am  I." 

No  unworthy  thought  has  impelled  us  to  commemorate 
this  day  with  solemn  rites  and  grave  words.  Few  of  us  are 
so  immature  as  to  attach  importance  to  a  mere  demonstration. 


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John  Lancaster  Spalding  $f 

None  of  us  are  so  frivolous  as  to  imagine  that  what  is  said  of 
a  man  has  meaning  or  value  other  than  that  derived  from  what 
he  is;  and  what  he  is,  not  himself  even,  but  God  alone  knows. 
There  may  be  merit  in  collecting  so  many  thousand  dol- 
lars and  in  paying  mechanics  for  fitting  together  so  many 
stones  and  so  many  pieces  of  wood,  but  where  the  aim  and 
end  are  spiritual,  praise  for  doing  such  things  is  not  to  the 
purpose.  Neither  the  heart  nor  the  proper  work  of  such  a 
one  is  in  matter,  which  has  meaning  for  him  only  in  so  far  as 
it  is  made  to  serve  higher  interests,  by  becoming  the  nourish- 
ment or  the  symbol  of  the  soul.  He  knows  that  what  each 
one,  and  the  social  body  as  well,  most  needs  is  not  wealth, 
nor  privilege,  nor  cunning,  nor  favor,  but  larger,  braver, 
holier,  sweeter  life — more  sympathy,  more  courage,  more  wis- 
dom, more  love.  They  prevail  who  are  stronger  than  their 
fellows — stronger  through  faith  and  desire,  through  knowl- 
edge and  virtue,  through  self-control  and  devotion  to  truth 
and  justice.  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  whose  character  is  built 
on  the  principles  which  faith  and  hope  make  certain,  which 
best  reason  approves,  are  the  powers  by  which  His  reign  is 
established  and  made  perpetual.  His  servants  conquer,  not 
with  the  sword,  not  with  money  nor  with  the  things  money 
can  buy,  but  by  the  soul,  which  enrooted  in  Him,  contemplates 
all  things  in  the  light  of  Eternity,  and  is  calm  and  unmoved, 
while  the  pomp  and  pageantry  pass  by,  to  sink  forever  beyond 
the  reach  of  all-penetrative  thought.  Men,  like  children,  are 
attracted  by  a  world  of  shows ;  they  are  busy  with  vanities,  and 
attach  importance  to  trifles.  But  from  the  central  heart  of 
religion  the  divine  voice  declares  that  only  the  things  which 
minister  to  the  soul's  welfare  have  worth;  that  there  is  no 
genuine  life  but  that  which  unfolds  itself  heavenward,  and, 
like  the  tendril  for  the  solid  stem,  reaches  after  God.  Had  we 
temples  built  of  gold  and  adorned  with  every  kind  of  precious 
stone;  though  the  music  of  the  masters,  uttered  by  masters, 
appealed  to  us ;  though  from  canvas  and  stone  and  high-raised 
pulpit  genius  spoke  to  us,  it  were  all  but  show  and  sound  if 
it  did  not  lift  the  soul  nearer  to  our  Father  in  heaven.  God's 
men  are  spiritual  men,  and  the  only  religious  progress  is  prog- 
ress in  faith  and  love,  in  wisdom  and  virtue. 


5#  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

What  we  commemorate  today,  we  of  the  Diocese  of  Pe- 
oria,  bishops  and  priests,  brothers  and  sisters,  and  the  people 
whose  servants  we  all  are,  what  this  company  of  distinguished 
men  have  come  from  many  Sees  to  help  us  to  celebrate  worthily, 
is  our  labors  for  the  moralization  of  human  life,  is  our  devo- 
tion to  the  things  that  make  for  righteousness  and  peace  and 
life  everlasting. 

If  we  have  built  churches,  it  is  that  the  people  may  gather 
there,  and  through  worship  and  the  reception  of  the  sacraments 
and  the  hearing  of  the  Word,  may  be  refreshed,  nourished  and 
renewed  in  their  innermost  being.  If  we  have  established 
schools,  it  is  that  the  little  ones,  whom  the  Blessed  Savior  loved, 
who  are  our  joy  and  our  hope,  may  grow  up  in  an  atmosphere 
in  which  learning  blends  with  piety,  knowledge  with  faith, 
true  thought  with  chaste  life,  love  with  obedience.  If  we  have 
founded  homes  for  those  whom  loss  or  sin  or  age  or  poverty 
has  made  helpless  or  miserable,  it  is  because  we  know  they 
are  our  brothers  and  sisters,  and  that  we  do  best  for  Our 
Heavenly  Father  and  for  ourselves  in  serving  them. 

This  is  what  we  cherish  most  and  most  love.  If  Peoria 
and  the  Diocese  of  Peoria  are  dear  to  us — and  God  and  we  all 
know  they  are — it  is  so  not  chiefly  for  the  beautiful  site,  the 
healthful  climate,  the  fertile  soil  from  which  the  corn  bursts 
like  song  from  happy  hearts ;  it  is  so,  above  all,  for  the  spirit 
of  freedom,  of  good  will,  of  helpfulness  which  breathes  here  as 
unhindered  as  the  gentle  wind  that  kisses  the  prairie  into  life 
and  bloom;  they  are  dear  for  the  opportunity  which  is  given 
here  to  all  alike  to  upbuild  character,  to  confirm  will,  to  culti- 
vate the  mind,  to  follow  after  the  better  things  of  which  faith 
and  hope  are  the  heralds. 

If  today  for  a  moment,  even  in  thought,  I  may  separate 
myself  from  any  one  of  those  who,  during  the  twenty-five 
years  that  have  now  become  a  part  of  the  unchangeable  past, 
have  gathered  about  me  in  still  increasing  numbers,  and  with 
hearts  ever  more  willing,  I  will  say  that  the  affection  I  bear 
them,  the  joy  they  give  me,  which  like  the  ripening  fruit  and 
the  mellowing  wine,  grow  more  precious  as  time  lengthens, 
are  born,  not  so  much  of  the  success  with  which  they  have 
accomplished  whatever  they  have  been  asked  to  do,  as  of  their 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  5P 

spirit  of  disinterestedness  and  self-sacrifice,  of  their  courage 
and  ability,  their  magnanimity  and  singleheartedness,  their 
never-slumbering  watchfulness  over  the  good  name  of  the 
diocese  and  that  of  its  priesthood.  When  the  office  of  bishop 
was  offered  to  me,  if  I  hesitated  to  accept  the  burden  and  the 
honor,  it  was  largely,  if  my  memory  deceive  me  not,  from  a 
dread  lest  my  opinion  of  man's  high  estate,  as  revealed  in  the 
lives  of  priests  and  nuns,  should  be  lowered  by  the  more  in- 
timate knowledge  of  them  which  necessarily  comes  to  those 
who  are  placed  in  authority  over  them.  A  personal  expe- 
rience of  twenty-five  years  is  a  broad  basis  for  the  judgment 
of  an  individual,  and  it  is  a  source  of  inner  strength  and  free- 
dom to  me  to  be  able  to  feel  and  say,  in  perfect  sincerity,  that 
though  priests  and  nuns  be  not  exempt  from  the  infirmities 
which  inhere  in  all  that  is  human,  I  have  found  them  to  be 
the  kindliest,  the  most  unselfish,  the  most  loyal,  the  most  pure- 
minded  and  the  most  devoted  of  men  and  women.  Never 
have  I  appealed  to  them  in  vain,  when  I  have  appealed  to  the 
god-like  in  man.  They  have  confirmed  my  faith  in  human 
nature,  and  in  the  worth  and  sacredness  of  life. 

They  have  made  me  more  certain  that  we  are  all  the  chil- 
dren of  an  Almighty  and  all-loving  Father  from  out  whose 
thought  and  care  we  can  never  die. 

Let  me  conclude,  in  my  own  name,  and  in  that  of  the 
whole  diocese,  with  the  expression  of  sincere  thanks  to  his 
eminence  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  to  the  most 
reverend  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  to  the  reverend  clergy- 
men who  have  done  us  the  honor  to  be  our  guests  to-day  and  to 
heighten  by  their  presence  and  sympathy  the  significance  and 
the  joy  of  this  occasion. 

l&egolutiong  StoopteD  by  tl)t 
Cft?  Conned 

Whereas,  The  supreme  authorities  of  his  Church  twenty- 
five  years  ago  recognized  the  sterling  worth  of  Reverend  John 
Lancaster  Spalding,  as  a  citizen  and  churchman,  and  elevated 
him  to  the  exalted  position  of  bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Peoria, 
and 


60  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

Whereas,  The  entire  membership  of  his  Church  throughout 
the  world  joins  today  in  congratulating  him  upon  a  more  than 
successful  career  as  Bishop  of  Peoria ; 

Therefore  Be  It  Resolved,  That  we  join  in  this  most  proper 
expression  of  love  and  congratulation.  For  twenty-five  years 
Bishop  Spalding  has  been  a  worthy  citizen  of  our  community, 
leading  in  every  movement  for  the  material  as  well  as  the 
spiritual  advancement  and  uplifting  of  our  citizens.  His  elo- 
quent words  and  ennobling  example  in  behalf  of  education  and 
temperance,  in  behalf  of  the  poor  and  lowly  and  those  suffering 
from  wrongs  and  oppressions,  have  planted  in  our  religious 
opinions  a  love  and  veneration  for  him  that  can  find  but  feeble 
expression  in  mere  words. 

Be  It  Further  Resolved,  That  we  congratulate  the  Right 
Reverend  John  Lancaster  Spalding  on  this,  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  his  elevation  to  the  dignified  position  he  holds, 
and  join  the  civilized  world  in  praying  for  his  continued  good 
health,  and  for  those  fuller  and  greater  honors  which  his  life 
and  genius  bespeak  for  him. 

ALDERMEN. 

Thos.  N.  Gorman,  Chas.  N.  Louis, 

George  Harms,  G.  F.  Simmons, 

J.  E.  Stillwell,  Thos.  O'Connor, 

Stephen  Wolschlag,  E.  N.  Woodruff, 

J.  J.  McDonald,  Charles  Proctor, 

A.  B.  Tolson,  David  S.  Long, 

W.  F.  Benson,  J.  J.  Jobst, 

J.  D.  Carey,  W.  R.  Allison, 

WILLIAM  F.  BRYAN,  Mayor. 

ROBT.  M.  ORR,  City  Clerk. 


Among  the  distinguished  visitors  were  His  Eminence,  Car- 
dinal Gibbons,  of  Baltimore ;  Archbishop  Ireland,  of  St.  Paul ; 
Archbishop  Keane,  of  Dubuque;  Archbishop  Kain,  of  St 
Louis;  Archbishop  Riordan,  of  San  Francisco;  Bishops  Ga- 
briels, of  Ogdensburg,  N.  Y. ;  McQuaid,  of  Rochester,  N.  Y. ; 
Byrne,  of  Nashville,  Tenn. ;  Foley,  of  Detroit,  Mich.;  Mess- 
mer,  of  Green  Bay,  Wis. ;  Shanley,  of  Fargo,  S.  D. ;  Cotter  of 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  61 

Winona,  Minn. ;  Scannell,  of  Omaha,  Neb. ;  Burke  of  St.  Jo- 
seph, Mo.;  Dunne,  of  Dallas,  Tex.;  Cosgrove,  of  Davenport, 
la.;  Glennon,  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.;  Muldoon,  of  Chicago; 
Ryan,  of  Alton ;  Janssen,  of  Belleville ;  Moeller,  of  Columbus ; 
Conaty,  of  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Rt.  Rev.  Innocent  Wolf,  ab- 
bott  of  St.  Benedict's  abbey,  Atchison,  Kans. ;  Rt  Rev.  Mon- 
signor  Legris,  of  St.  Viateur's  College,  Kankakee,  111.;  Rt. 
Rev.  Monsignor  J.  B.  Murray,  president  of  St.  Mary's  Semi- 
nary, Cincinnati,  Ohio;  Very  Rev.  J.  Z.  Zahm,  provincial  of 
the  Order  of  the  Holy  Cross,  Notre  Dame,  Ind. ;  Very  Rev.  M. 
J.  Marsile,  president  of  St.  Viateur's  College,  Kankakee,  111.; 
Rev.  Joseph  H.  McMahon  and  Rev.  M.  A.  Cunnion,  of  New 
York  city ;  Rev.  Father  P.  Gavin,  chancellor  of  the  archdiocese 
of  Baltimore,  who  accompanied  Cardinal  Gibbons. 

Besides  these  visiting  dignitaries  there  were  present  some 
three  hundred  priests  from  this  and  the  surrounding  states. 


Cfcening 

The  evening  service  was  beautiful.  The  great  Cathedral, 
magnificently  decorated  and  brilliant  with  the  glow  of  hun- 
dreds of  lights,  presented  a  gorgeous  appearance  as  the 
bishops  and  priests  entered  for  the  service.  At  the  close  of 
the  service  and  the  musical  program,  Archbishop  Ireland,  of 
St.  Paul,  delivered  the  sermon.  His  subject  was  "The  Chris- 
tian Priesthood,"  and  his  sermon  was  as  follows : 

"He  said  therefore  to  them  again :  Peace  be  to  you.  As 
the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  I  also  send  you." — John  xx.,  21. 

The  mystery  of  mysteries  in  dealings  of  the  infinite  with 
the  finite,  the  mystery  of  love  and  power  ineffable,  is  the  in- 
carnation of  the  eternal  Word.  "In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 
*  *  *  And  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among 
us;  and  we  saw  the  glory,  the  glory  as  it  were  of  the  only- 
begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth." 

The  infinite — the  first  cause,  the  all-pervading  mind,  the 
all-vivifying  will,  alone  gives  life  and  light  to  all  that  is  finite, 


62  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

and  alone  is  its  ultimate  term.  From  God  and  to  God — 
behold  man's  sublime  origin  and  man's  sublime  destiny. 

Man  is  necessarily  a  seeker  of  God,  a  religious  being.  In 
the  long  history  of  the  race  there  is  discernible  always  a  re- 
ligion, a  reaching  out  under  one  form  or  another  toward  the 
supernatural.  Man  is  restless  until  he  lies  upon  the  bosom  of 
the  Infinite. 

But  the  despair  of  man's  upward  journey !  God,  so  much 
needed  by  him,  is  yet  distant  from  him !  And  God  is  all  spirit- 
ual, while  in  man  the  spiritual  is  so  clogged,  so  dulled  by 
sense,  that  what  has  not  bodily  shape  is  but  dimly  descried, 
and  but  feebly  laid  hold  of.  Hence  in  his  reaching  out  toward 
God,  pure  and  beauteous  as  was  ever  in  itself  this  motion  of 
mind  and  heart,  numberless  were  the  devious  ways  which  poor 
man  mistook  for  the  straight  road,  numberless  were  the  de- 
ceiving and  fateful  glares  which  shone  to  him  as  truth  and 
goodness.  What  then?  Shall  God  be  always  inaudible  to 
humanity's  ear,  always  invisible  to  humanity's  eye?  The  ap- 
peal was  to  God's  eternal  love;  and  from  God's  eternal  love 
the  answer  came:  "Then,  said  I,  behold  I  come."  Omnipo- 
tence was  tasked  that  the  infinite  put  on  the  form  of  the  finite, 
that  God  be  made  a  child  of  humanity.  "And  the  Word  was 
made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  saw  the  glory  as  it 
were  of  the  only-begotten  Son  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace 
and  truth."  Humanity  through  its  bodily  senses  saw  and 
heard  its  God,  and  through  these  senses  its  spirit  was  flooded 
with  His  truth  and  His  love. 

The  Incarnation,  so  to  speak,  made  the  supernatural;  it 
concreted  in  human  form  the  invisible  and  inaudible ;  it  brought 
God  under  the  very  eyes  and  near  to  the  very  ears  of  men. 
The  distance  between  the  infinite  and  the  finite  vanished;  re- 
ligion, the  exaltation  of  man  to  the  embrace  of  the  Most  High, 
became  so  easy,  so  sweet,  that  no  peril  lay  in  its  pathway,  no 
effort  was  felt  in  its  flight. 

And,  now,  I  speak  another  mystery — the  extension  and 
perpetuation  of  that  of  the  Incarnation,  lesser  only  than  that 
of  the  Incarnation  itself  in  power  and  love. 

The  day  came  when  Jesus,  returning  to  the  Father,  with- 
drew from  visible  nearness  to  men  His  divine  personality  and 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  <5j 

the  sensible  concretion  of  the  supernatural  wrought  in  the  In- 
carnation. Is  the  vast  chasm  opened  again  between  God  and 
man  ?  Is  man  in  his  searching  for  God  turned  again  back  upon 
himself,  alone  and  unaided,  doomed  again  to  grope  his  way 
amid  the  dim  regions  of  the  purely  spiritual  world  ?  Not  so ; 
the  great  gifts  of  God  to  humanity  are  without  recall,  and 
the  Incarnation  but  puts  on  another  form. 

Do  I  overstate  the  divine  dispensation  ?  Remember,  I  pray 
you,  the  omnipotence  embodied  in  Jesus,  and  hearken  to  His 
institutional  words. 

He  was  speaking  not  to  the  body  of  His  disciples,  but  to 
the  chosen  few,  the  Apostles.  To  these,  not  to  others,  He 
said :  "Peace  be  to  you.  As  the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  I  also 
send  you."  The  self-same  mission  intrusted  to  Him,  when 
first  in  the  eternal  counseling  of  the  Triune  Majesty  He  ex- 
claimed :  "Behold,  I  come,"  is  now  intrusted  by  Him  to  His 
Apostles.  The  mission  is  the  self-same.  "As  the  Father  hath 
sent  Me,  I  also  send  you."  And,  again :  "All  power  is  given 
to  Me  in  Heaven  and  on  earth;  going,  therefore,  teach  ye  all 
nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  *  *  *  and,  behold,  I  am  with 
you  all  days,  even  to  the  consummation  of  the  world."  To 
substitute  for  Christ  mere  men  is  what  omnipotence  alone 
could  do;  therefore  it  is  that  in  this  instance  He  invokes  His 
omnipotence.  "All  power  is  given  to  Me  in  heaven  and  in 
earth" — and  so  in  virtue  of  His  omnipotence  He  is  with  them 
while  they  teach  and  baptize,  and  so,  when  they  teach  and  bap- 
tize, they  teach  and  baptize  in  His  name  and  with  His  power, 
even  as  if  He  Himself  taught  and  baptized.  And  furthermore : 
"He  that  receiveth  you  receiveth  Me ;  he  that  despiseth  you  de- 
spiseth  Me."  So  thorough  and  complete,  in  the  mind  of  Christ, 
is  the  identification  of  His  mission  with  that  of  His  Apostles! 
Specific  delegations  of  divine  power  appertaining  to  His  mis- 
sion were  made  by  Christ  on  given  occasions  to  the  Apostles ; 
that  of  remitting  sin,  when  He  said :  "Whose  sins  you  shall 
forgive  they  are  forgiven  them ;  and  whose  sins  you  shall  re- 
tain, they  are  retained ;"  that  of  renewing  the  mystic  wonders 
of  the  Last  Supper,  when  He  said :  "Do  this  in  commemora- 
tion of  Me."  That  the  several  delegations,  whether  general  or 


64  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

specific,  were  to  be  enduring  in  their  effect,  and,  consequently, 
were  made  to  the  Apostles,  not  merely  to  them  as  individuals, 
but  to  them  as  a  corporate  body,  to  them,  and  to  their  succes- 
sors in  office,  is  evidenced  from  the  words:  "And,  behold,  I 
am  with  you  all  days,  even  unto  the  consummation  of  the 
world,"  as,  also,  from  the  Apostles'  own  action,  in  associating 
with  themselves  from  time  to  time  others  of  the  disciples  and 
communicating  to  those  their  own  powers  and  authority. 
Christ  came  for  the  salvation  of  men  in  all  ages.  When  He 
withdrew  from  earth  His  visible  presence  the  Apostles  took 
His  place;  the  Apostles,  therefore,  as  the  representatives  of 
Christ,  were  to  subsist  in  all  ages. 

And  thus,  through  Christ's  love  and  power,  the  Christian 
priesthood  was  created,  Christ's  tabernacling  upon  earth  was 
made  to  endure,  the  visible  incarnation  of  the  infinite  was  con- 
tinued among  men.  Rising  toward  His  ethereal  home  Elias 
cast  down  his  mantle  upon  the  shoulders  of  Eliseus,  and  in 
the  person  of  Eliseus,  Elias  still  lived  upon  earth.  In  like 
manner,  but  with  efficacy,  far  greater  and  far  more  lasting, 
Christ  cast  His  mantle  upon-  the  shoulders  of  His  Priests,  and 
in  the  persons  of  His  Priests,  He  still  walks  among  men. 

The  Catholic  Church  is  vitally  sacerdotal.  It  sees  in  its 
ministers  a  body  of  men  separate  in  character  and  endowment 
from  their  fellows,  bearing  a  divine  commission,  charged  with 
supernatural  powers  that  are  derived  directly  and  imme- 
diately from  Christ.  In  this  it  gives  evidence  of  its  affiliation 
with  Christ.  Its  sacerdotalism,  which  enemies  would  fain 
turn  into  a  reproach,  is  the  proud  inheritance  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  because  it  is  the  Church  of  Christ.  To  disown  sacer- 
dotalism were  to  disown  divine  origin.  Christ  plainly  set  the 
Apostles  apart  from  others.  Christ  plainly  spoke  to  them 
words  not  spoken  to  others,  words  pregnant  with  supernatural 
power  and  authority.  A  church  that  is  of  Christ  must  of 
necessity  present  to  the  world  a  divinely  endowed  priesthood. 

Let  churches  that  date  from  recent  years,  that  never 
touched  the  hand  of  the  God-man,  that  never  thrilled  at  the 
sound  of  His  voice,  disown,  as  they  may,  sacerdotalism;  they 
are  from  men,  and  naught  save  what  men  can  give  them  do 
they  possess.  Not  so  the  church  of  nineteen  centuries,  whose 


LIBRARY 
Of  IHfe 


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V 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  6$ 

first  ministers  were  Peter,  and  John,  and  James,  which  stood 
at  Christ's  side  on  the  Galilean  mountain  and  hearkened  to 
the  words:  "All  power  is  given  to  Me  in  heaven  and  on 
earth.  Going,  therefore,  teach  ye  all  nations."  The  current 
of  supernal  power,  flowing  from  those  sublime  words,  vibrates 
henceforth  over  the  world  to  sanctify  and  deify  the  souls  of 
men. 

"But  thou,  O  man  of  God,"  wrote  Paul  to  the  priest  Tim- 
othy. The  priest  of  the  Church  of  Christ  is  "the  man  of  God," 
the  token  to  the  world  that  God  lives  and  reigns,  the  represen- 
tative before  it  of  the  supernatural  and  the  divine.  What 
Christ  was  by  nature,  the  priest  is  by  the  appointment  of 
Christ ;  and  thus  he  has,  as  Christ  had,  the  mission  to  concrete 
in  a  manner  before  men  the  invisible,  that  the  invisible  be  not 
forgotten  by  men.  A  priest  is  seen;  it  is  a  reminder  of  the 
supernatural.  A  priest  is  seen;  a  testimony  is  given  to  the 
higher  life,  to  things  better  and  purer  than  earth  owns.  A 
priest  is  seen ;  God  is  seen  in  visible  symbolism.  In  this  realm 
of  matter  and  of  sense,  where  earth  so  fiercely  drags  down  the 
soul,  where  clouds  so  dense  hide  from  it  the  vision  of  things 
supernatural,  how  precious  is  this  symbol  of  the  divine !  How 
precious  the  priesthood  of  Christ's  Church,  ever  living  among 
us,  walking  with  us  low  upon  the  ground,  while  still  pointing 
upward,  so  that  we  cannot  but  see  it,  and  seeing  it,  cannot  but 
remember  our  exalted  destinies. 

"For  Christ  we  are  ambassadors,"  said  Paul  of  himself 
and  his  fellow-priests.  Another  Christ,  "alter  Christus,"  by 
this  name  were  the  rectors  of  the  Church  wont  to  call  the 
priest.  The  priest  personifies  Christ;  he  puts  Christ  under 
our  eyes;  he  compels  us  to  see  Him,  to  think  of  Him.  And 
this  is  to  us  a  supreme  blessing.  Were  Christ  to  remain  a 
mere  historic  personage,  cut  off  by  nineteen  centuries,  how 
easy  to  forget  Him !  But  with  a  body  of  men  reaching  back, 
in  uninterrupted  continuity,  to  Christ  himself,  ever  present 
among  us,  wearing  His  robes  of  office,  holding  aloft  His 
standard.  Christ  is  never  out  of  sight,  Christ  does  not  fall  back 
among  the  dead.  If  the  priesthood  were  nothing  else  than  the 
unceasing  reminder  that  Christ  was,  that  Christ  taught  men, 
loved  them  and  died  for  them,  it  were  to  earth  a  boon  inestim- 
able. How  senseless  the  clamor — away  with  all  priesthood; 


66  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

let  each  one  go  directly  to  Christ,  directly  to  God!  Christ 
removed  by  nineteen  centuries,  God  driven  back  into  the  dim 
regions  of  the  abstract,  both  Christ  and  God  would  be  little 
thought  of.  Why,  we  ask,  was  there  a  Christ?  Why  was 
not  humanity  left  to  seek  God  without  even  Christ  as  an  inter- 
mediary ?  Is  it  not  that  humanity  needed  the  visible  and  the 
sensible  in  order  to  apprehend  the  more  readily  the  invisible 
and  the  spiritual?  And  as  Christ  was  needed  to  bring  near 
unto  men  God,  so  the  priest  is  now  needed  to  bring  near  unto 
them  Christ. 

"Let  a  man  so  account  of  us,"  writes  Paul,  "as  of  the  min- 
isters of  Christ  and  the  dispensers  of  the  mysteries  of  God." 
"But  thou,  O  man  of  God" — thou  are  not  only  the  chosen  sym- 
bol of  the  divine  and  the  supernatural,  not  only  the  official 
representative  of  Christ  the  teacher  and  the  Saviour — thou 
art,  even  as  Christ  was,  the  minister  of  heaven's  gifts,  the 
bearer  and  distributor  of  divine  treasures. 

The  priest  teaches  the  doctrines  of  Christ — the  eternal  coun- 
sels of  the  divine  mind,  revealed  to  men  through  Christ.  He 
teaches  those  doctrines  officially,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and 
by  authority  from  Christ.  And,  so  far  as  he  teaches  those 
doctrines  in  union  with  the  general  apostolate  and  its  supreme 
head,  he  teaches  them  under  Christ's  own  direction,  and  de- 
livers them  pure  and  undefiled  to  his  hearers.  The  commis- 
sion is  most  formal,  the  promise  most  explicit:  "All  power 
is  given  to  Me  in  heaven  and  in  earth ;  going,  therefore,  teach 
ye  all  nations  *  *  *  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you,  and  behold,  I  am  with  you 
all  days  even  unto  the  consummation  of  the  world."  How 
different  the  priest  of  Christ's  Church  from  the  spokesmen  of 
churches  made  by  men,  or  the  self-authorized  philosopher, 
whose  voice  is  only  human,  whose  words  bring  but  their  own 
weight  into  the  scales  of  judgment ! 

The  priest  of  Christ's  Church  pours  upon  souls  the  blood  of 
Calvary,  redeeming  them  from  the  slavery  of  sin,  cleansing 
them  from  its  stain,  beautifying  them  into  God's  own  image. 
So  plenary  is  the  priest's  agency,  held  immediately  from 
Christ,  that  through  the  words  spoken  by  him  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  there  goes  out  in  unstinted  force  the  omnipotence  of 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  67 

Christ.  "Going,  therefore,  teach  ye  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost" — the  priest  baptizes;  a  soul  is  born  again  "of 
water  and  the  Holy  Ghost,"  made  radiant  of  the  smile  of  God's 
countenance.  "Whose  sins  you  shall  forgive,  they  are  for- 
given"— the  priest  repeats  the  sentence  of  forgiveness  over 
the  penitent  sinner;  the  prodigal  child  is  pressed  again  upon 
the  Father's  bosom. 

The  priest  of  Christ's  Church  renews  the  mysteries  of  the 
Last  Supper  and  of  Calvary.  "Do  this  in  commemoration  of 
Me,"  said  Jesus  to  the  Apostles  when  He  had  changed  bread 
into  His  body,  and  wine  into  His  blood,  anticipating  in  mystic 
form  the  bloody  drama  of  the  morrow,  when  He  had  fed  unto 
them  His  own  self  as  the  nutriment  of  their  souls.  "Do  this," 
and  as  over  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine  the  priests  speaks 
the  words  of  Christ,  "This  is  My  body,"  "This  is  My  blood," 
Christ  is  offered  anew  in  sacrifice ;  and  as  the  priest  distributes 
to  the  faithful  the  food  spread  upon  the  altar,  the  body  and 
the  blood  of  the  Crucified,  the  faithful  absorb  into  their  souls 
their  Saviour,  their  God. 

Lest  you  think,  brethren,  I  wander  into  dreams,  recall,  I 
again  beseech  you,  Christ's  institutional  words  and  Christ's 
omnipotence. 

But  what,  you  ask,  does  all  this  mean?  What  can  have 
been  the  design  of  the  Incarnate  in  awarding  to  children  of 
men  the  power  of  God  ?  What  reason  is  there  for  such  prodi- 
gality of  supreme  gifts? 

Brethren,  all  that  is  done  for  the  priesthood  and  by  the 
priesthood  is  done  through  God's  love  for  souls.  The  priest- 
hood is  not  an  end  to  itself;  its  end  is  your  deification.  The 
priest  is  not  endowed  supernally  for  his  own  honor  and  glory ; 
he  is  but  the  minister  of  God's  mercies  to  you,  he  is  your  server 
unto  your  spiritual  aggrandizement.  God  so  loved  you  that 
He  destined  you  to  supernatural  life  and  felicity;  to  merit  for 
you  graces  that  lift  to  such  heights,  the  "Word"  was  made 
flesh,  suffered  and  died ;  and  now,  in  the  distribution  of  those 
graces,  as  the  instrument  must  be  proportioned  to  the  fruits 
it  is  to  produce,  the  priesthood,  Christ's  instrument  for  the 
regeneration  and  sanctification  of  souls  by  the  application  to 


68  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

them  of  His  very  blood,  is  invested  with  supernal  dignity,  and 
vibrates  with  supernal  life  and  energy. 

In  presence  of  the  priesthood  of  Christ's  Church  we  bow 
in  wonder  and  gratitude;  we  admire  the  mysteries  of  God's 
dealings  with  souls;  we  accept  the  priesthood  as  the  sequence 
of  the  Incarnation,  and  the  Incarnation  as  the  sequence  of 
God's  love  for  men. 

Priests  of  Christ's  Church,  dreadful — it  is  not? — the  re- 
sponsibility made  to  weigh  upon  us  by  the  divine  element  in 
the  priesthood.  The  priesthood  is  divine,  and  we  are  human ; 
and  to  us,  in  co-operation  with  the  grace  given  to  us  in  our 
ordination,  it  is  left  to  put  the  human  in  harmony  with  the 
divine,  so  that  one  be  worthy  of  the  other,  so  that  one  work 
fitly  with  the  other. 

In  Christ  the  divine  and  the  human  were  clasped  together 
by  the  one  divine  personality;  the  harmony  of  the  one  with 
the  other,  as  the  necessary  result  of  the  hypostatic  union,  was 
perfect.  Not  so  in  us;  through  us,  indeed,  there  courses  the 
current  of  divine  life  and  power;  but  in  us,  in  nature  and  in 
person,  the  human  retains  full  independent  control ;  and,  as  our 
will  decrees,  either  adapts  itself  to  the  divine  or  sets  itself  in 
opposition  to  it. 

Understand  me  well,  brethren.  It  makes  no  vital  differ- 
ence to  those  who  receive  the  ministrations  of  a  priest,  whether 
in  him  the  human  is,  or  is  not,  attuned  to  the  divine ;  whether, 
indeed,  he  is  a  saint  or  a  sinner.  The  essential  efficacy  of  the 
ministrations  of  the  priest  depends  upon  the  divine  within  him, 
not  upon  the  human;  upon  the  powers  communicated  to  him 
at  the  moment  of  his  aggregation  to  the  priestly  body  in 
Christ's  Church,  not  upon  his  manner  of  life,  or  his  co-opera- 
tion with  the  favors  that  were  then  showered  upon  him.  Christ, 
in  instituting  the  priesthood,  held  in  view  the  souls  that  were 
to  be  saved,  and  for  their  sake  He  willed  that  the  ministerial 
power  of  the  priest  be  effective  of  its  own  virtue,  whatever 
be  the  personal  moral  status  of  the  priest  himself. 

Yes,  there  is  the  human  in  the  priesthood ;  and,  alas !  here 
and  there  it  shows  itself  in  unmistakable  colors.  Is  there  here 
an  argument  against  the  divine  in  the  priesthood?  None  what- 
soever. The  faithful  Christian  will  always  deeply  regret  that 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  <5p 

one  bearing  the  name  of  priest  should,  Judas-like,  betray  the 
Master  and  dishonor  his  sacred  vocation.  He  will  pray  fer- 
vently that  all  priests  be  what  the  Holy  Church  exhorts  them 
to  be,  and,  so  far  as  he  is  allowed,  he  will  do  earnestly  his  part 
to  build  up  an  ideal  priesthood.  But  if  faults  are  discernible, 
and  even  scandals  do  occur,  he  is  not  moved  in  his  faith; 
he  wonders  the  more  that  God  is  so  merciful  to  souls  as  to 
make  of  the  sons  of  men  His  ministers  and  agents,  that  souls 
be  reached  by  His  graces  in  readier  and  more  efficient  manner ; 
and  turning  quickly  from  isolated  cases,  which  the  Almighty, 
in  order  to  make  manifest  the  play  of  free  will,  allows  to  stand 
in  the  holy  of  holies,  he  fixes  steadily  his  regard  upon  God's 
priesthood,  as  it  lights  up  the  moral  world  in  all  Christian  ages, 
under  all  skies.  Brethren,  look  out  upon  God's  priesthood. 
It  sparkles  with  the  rays  of  heaven  in  its  myriad  virtues.  Is 
it  not  pure  and  holy?  Does  it  not  impel  upward  the  lowly 
human  unto  heights  sublime  ?  Is  not  the  divine  within  it  trans- 
lucent even  through  its  human  vesture?  No;  the  priesthood 
of  the  Church  does  not  in  its  human  manifestations  deny  a 
divine  origin,  or  a  divine  mission. 

What  the  individual  priest  should  be,  to  be  worthy  of  his 
priesthood,  to  what  degree  he  should  make  the  human  in  him 
conform  with  the  divine,  is  easily  told. 

The  priest  should  be  holy ;  no  moral  stain  should  rest  upon 
him;  the  spirit  of  Christ  should  vivify  his  thoughts  and  acts; 
every  virtue  should  accompany  his  daily  steps. 

"But  thou,  O  man  of  God,  fly  these  things  (the  things 
of  earth) ;  and  pursue  justice,  godliness,  faith,  charity,  pa- 
tience, mildness." 

The  priest  is  the  symbol  of  the  supernatural.  The  purity 
of  the  skies  must  adorn  his  countenance;  the  loftiness  of  the 
skies  must  permeate  his  mind ;  the  love  of  the  eternal  must  be 
his  source  of  life  and  action. 

The  priest  is  the  representative,  the  ambassador  of  Christ : 
"For  Christ  we  are  ambassadors,  God  as  it  were  exhorting  by 
us."  Therefore  let  Christ  be  so  seen  in  the  priest  that  to  those 
whom  he  would  bring  to  Christ  he  can  say  with  Paul:  "Be 
imitators  of  me,  as  I  also  am  of  Christ."  The  first  apprehen- 
sion that  is  had  of  Christ,  as  His  figure  projects  itself  across 


/o  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

the  ages  of  humanity,  is  that  of  the  all-holy :  "Holy,  innocent, 
undefiled,  separate  from  sinners,  made  higher  than  the 
heavens."  O  Christ,  to  be  Thy  ambassadors,  to  speak  for 
Thee,  to  show  Thee  to  men — what  a  challenge  to  sacerdotal 
sanctity ! 

The  priest  is  the  treasurer,  the  distributor  of  the  merits  of 
Christ,  the  graces  of  regeneration  and  holiness.  Shall  he 
hold  in  hand  those  graces,  and  not  be  himself  enriched  by 
them  ?  Shall  he  deal  out  to  others  the  life  of  the  angel,  and 
refuse  it  to  himself?  This  the  malediction  of  the  prophet; 
"Thou  shalt  sow,  but  shalt  not  reap;  thou  shalt  tread  the 
olives,  but  shalt  not  be  anointed  with  the  oil:  and  the  new 
grape,  but  shalt  not  drink  the  wine." 

The  priest  is  the  teacher  of  men ;  his  mission  is  to  draw  men 
to  Christ,  to  plant  in  their  minds  the  faith  of  Christ.  But 
will  teaching  be  efficacious,  unless  it  be  spoken  with  boundless 
sincerity,  and  that  sincerity  be  translucent  in  the  whole  life 
of  the  speaker?  Will  the  power  of  Christ  to  sanctify  souls  be 
admitted,  if  it  has  not  plainly  sanctified  the  soul  of  him  who 
is  its  chosen  mouthpiece?  Mere  teaching,  even  though  upheld 
by  strongest  argument,  is  sterile,  unless  it  carries  with  it  the 
magnetic  fire  that  burns  into  the  soul  of  the  hearer;  such  fire 
this  is  as  issues  from  the  soul  of  the  teacher,  whose  blazing 
flames  are  the  examples  given  by  the  teacher.  Mere  teaching, 
however  noble  and  pure  in  itself,  is  vague  and  abstract  until 
it  takes  visible  form  in  facts.  The  eternal  law  did  not  impress 
the  world  until  it  lived  in  Christ;  Christ's  historic  law  will 
not  impress  the  humanity  of  to-day  until  it  lives  in  the  priest 
of  to-day.  Miracles  are  quoted  as  the  groundwork  of  priestly 
teaching;  but  miracles  of  nineteen  hundred  years  ago  are  too 
remote,  unless  they  revive  in  a  miracle  of  the  present  time. 
Let  this  be  the  moral  miracle,  a  man  built  up  upon  the  model 
of  Christ— a  preacher  of  Christ  who  acts  out  in  daily  life  the 
teachings  of  Christ. 

To  sanctity  in  the  priest  there  must  be  superadded  knowl- 
edge. "The  lips  of  the  priest,"  says  the  prophet,  "shall  keep 
knowledge ;  and  they  shall  seek  the  law  at  his  mouth,  because 
he  is  the  angel  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

The  mission  of  the  priest  is  to  plant  divine  faith  in  the  souls 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  fl 

of  men.  This  is  done  by  an  appeal  to  intellect,  by  a  victory 
over  intellect.  "Faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the 
word  of  Christ."  God's  grace  is,  indeed,  at  work,  aiding  the 
preacher  to  speak  and  the  hearer  to  believe;  but  God's  grace 
presupposes  the  play  of  intellect  both  in  preacher  and  in 
hearer. 

The  priest  steps  into  the  intellectual  arena  of  the  world, 
saying:  I  bear  a  message  from  Christ.  Dare  not  attempt  to 
speak,  unless  you  know  well  what  the  message  is  that  Christ 
has  confided  to  you.  Ignorance  of  it  is  an  injury  to  Christ,  an 
insult  to  the  listener.  Know  well  what  the  message  is,  know 
it  in  its  entirety,  know  it  in  all  its  power  and  beauty.  And  be 
ready,  when  the  right  of  Christ  to  send  a  message,  or  your 
right  to  be  his  spokesman,  is  disputed,  to  unfold  the  roll  of 
Christ's  gospel,  and  with  logic  resistless,  and  language  that  en- 
forces respect,  to  extol  Christ,  the  prophet,  the  Lord,  the  Sa- 
vior, and  His  Church,  the  mistress  and  queen  of  the  ages — 
so  that  it  indeed  may  be  said:  verily,  what  we  hear  is  from 
God. 

Vast  is  the  field  of  knowledge  with  which  the  priest  ought 
to  be  familiar ;  for  few  are  the  departments  of  thought  across 
the  borders  of  which  Christian  faith  in  its  dogmas  or  its  pre- 
cepts does  not  pass.  History  and  philosophy,  science  and 
sociology,  draw  light  for  their  own  teachings  from  revealed 
truth,  and  assist  in  explaining  and  illustrating  the  teachings  of 
faith.  Art  is  wrought  by  religion  into  its  highest  forms, 
and  in  turn  lends  its  splendors  to  bring  within  reach  of  the  eye 
and  ear  the  beauties  of  religious  aspirations;  and  literature 
it  is  that  provides  the  fitting  garb  by  which  religion's  truths 
and  hopes  may  be  served  out  to  men.  With  all  such  matters 
the  priest  should  have  long  tarried,  learning  well  to  rein  them 
into  the  service  of  the  Most  High. 

Knowledge  in  the  priest  exalts  the  priest's  soul;  it  en- 
riches his  mind  with  lofty  ideals,  mellows  his  heart  to  love 
and  sacrifice,  and  bears  him  onward  to  sacred  ambitions, 
whence  spring  great  designs  and  the  heroic  courage  to  pursue 
them.  Knowledge  in  the  priest  wins  for  him  the  esteem  and 
respect  of  the  world,  silences  distrust  and  cavil,  and  of  its  own 
fame  adds  untold  strength  to  his  religious  teaching. 


?2  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

The  world  reveres  intellectual  power;  and  strong,  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  is  the  priesthood  that 
possesses  it. 

To  sanctity  and  knowledge  in  the  priest  I  would  lend  the 
wings  of  holy  zeal,  that  upon  them  they  fly  over  plain  and 
mountain,  over  sea  and  continent,  in  search  of  souls  to  en- 
lighten them  with  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  warm  them  with  the 
love  of  Christ.  "I  am  come,"  said  Jesus,  "to  cast  fire  on  the 
earth;  and  what  will  I  but  that  it  be  kindled?"  And  how 
Jesus  labored  and  suffered  that  this  fire  be  kindled  in  souls! 
And  so  must  the  priest  labor  and  suffer,  if  he  is  a  lover  of 
Jesus,  a  lover  of  souls.  Earnestness  is  the  condition  of  victory 
on  all  fields  of  human  effort;  sloth  and  routine  everywhere 
mean  shame  and  defeat.  But  if  ever  there  were  work,  noble 
and  sublime,  challenging  all  the  ambitions,  all  the  energies  of 
the  soul,  that  work  surely  is  the  spreading  of  Christ's  faith, 
the  exaltation  of  Holy  Church,  the  salvation  of  souls.  If  ever, 
then,  there  be  the  workman  hating  sloth  and  routine,  and 
earnest  in  his  vocation,  be  he  the. priest. 

The  priest  of  God— the  human  and  the  divine — the  human 
responding  to  the  harmonies  of  the  divine,  and  the  divine  unit- 
ing with  the  human — what  power  to  do  and  conquer ! 

"And  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days,  even  unto  the  con- 
summation of  the  world."  God  is  ever  faithful  to  His  promise. 
Priests,  shall  we  do  our  share? 

Building  up  the  priesthood — endowing  it  with  sanctity, 
knowledge  and  zeal — is  of  all  works  of  religion  and  charity  the 
highest  and  the  best,  the  most  fruitful  in  results,  the  most  meri- 
torious before  God.  I  must  tell  briefly  the  faithful  laity  of  the 
part  they  may  have  in  it. 

Brethren  of  the  laity,  to  you  is  given  the  privilege  to  dedi- 
cate your  sons  to  the  service  of  the  sanctuary.  The  priesthood 
is  recruited  from  the  youth  of  the  land;  the  best,  the  fairest 
of  them  are  invited  to  be  God's  ministers,  the  ambassadors  of 
Christ,  the  savior  of  souls.  Could  there  be  opened  to  them 
a  more  sublime  calling?  Could  there  be  offered  to  them  a 
holier,  a  nobler  opportunity  to  accomplish  great  things  for 
God  and  for  humanity,  to  put  to  profit  the  talents  they  have 
received  from  nature  and  grace,  to  win  glorious  and  enduring 


• 


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John  Lancaster  Spalding  75 

victories  ?  Catholic  youths,  why  not  be  ambitious  for  the  honor 
of  buckling  upon  your  breast  the  armor  of  Christ,  grasping  in 
your  hands  the  sword  of  His  truth,  to  conquer  with  Christ  and 
for  Christ?  Catholic  fathers  and  mothers,  why  not  rejoice  in 
the  holy  thought  of  seeing  one  day  the  child  of  your  love  offer- 
ing at  the  altar  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary,  and  distributing  to  you 
the  graces  of  the  redemption?  Shall  I  speak  a  complaint  of 
Catholic  fathers  and  mothers  in  America?  It  is  this:  that 
they  do  not,  as  much  as  they  should,  nurture  in  the  souls  of 
their  children  a  vocation  to  the  priesthood,  and  especially  is 
this  true  of  Catholics  whose  worldly  careers  have  led  them  to 
wealth  and  social  prominence.  What  is  the  cause?  Is  it  weak- 
ness of  faith  in  the  supernatural,  on  the  part  of  the  laity,  or  is 
it  the  mere  fact  that  the  leaders  in  the  church  have  not  been 
sufficiently  careful  to  direct  attention  to  this  most  important 
matter?  Whatever  the  cause,  the  truth  is  that  until  vocations 
are  more  numerous  in  America  than  they  heretofore  have  been, 
religion  will  not  prosper  in  the  country  as  we  should  wish  it 
to  prosper. 

Brethren  of  the  laity,  to  you  is  given  the  privilege  to  help, 
with  your  temporal  wealth,  the  bishops  of  the  Church  to  give 
to  candidates  for  the  priesthood  the  thorough  training  which 
their  high  vocation  makes  necessary.  We  have  in  America 
ecclesiastical  seminaries ;  but  they  are  neither  in  sufficient  num- 
ber, nor  are  they  sufficiently  endowed,  to  furnish  to  the  Amer- 
ican Church  the  priesthood  which  it  needs.  We  have  a  Catholic 
University,  one  of  the  prime  purposes  of  which  is  to  open  to 
levites  of  superior  talents  opportunities  of  attaining  to  high 
scholarship,  so  that  here  and  there  be  at  least  a  few  fit  to  be 
special  leaders  in  the  great  movements  to  which  the  Church  is 
committed,  fit  to  be,  as  it  were,  princes  of  thought  and  action; 
but  this  university  controls  scarcely  two  million  dollars,  where 
thirty  or  more  millions  should  be  at  its  disposal.  Why  this? 
It  is  not  that  all  our  American  Catholics  are  poor.  It  is  not 
that  they  are  without  examples  of  liberal  giving  among  their 
fellow-citizens,  as  a  hundred  instances  of  rich  donations  to 
other  institutions  and  other  causes  bear  continuous  witness. 
Nor  is  it,  can  I  believe,  that  Catholics  are  insensible  to  high 
ideals,  or  devoid  of  generous  heart-beatings.  It  must  be  that 


74  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

enough  is  not  said  and  done  to  instruct  them  in  their  duty  in 
this  respect,  and  to  quicken  them  to  a  realization  of  the  great 
need  of  religion — a  learned  and  well  trained  priesthood. 

Brethren  of  the  priesthood,  brethren  of  the  laity,  the  twen- 
tieth century  dawns  upon  the  world.  Never  in  history  was 
there  another  age  to  challenge  such  intelligent  and  zealous 
work  in  the  cause  of  religion  as  does  the  present.  For  us,  the 
twentieth  century  dawns  in  America ;  nowhere  else,  in  no  other 
country,  are  the  aspirations  and  the  hopes  of  the  age  so  high 
born,  so  promising,  as  in  America. 

Nature  is  wrought  up  to  highest  intensity.  Earth  has 
yielded  its  most  hidden  secrets,  and  put  its  wealth  with  un- 
stinted liberality  at  the  service  of  men.  Science  has  unraveled 
deepest  mysteries  and  enriched  humanity  with  forces  hereto- 
fore undreamed.  The  human  mind  was  never  so  ambitious, 
the  human  heart  never  so  quickened  and  so  hopeful.  In  all 
departments  of  life  stupendous  triumphs  have  been  obtained, 
and  the  future  is  pregnant  with  triumphs  yet  more  astounding. 
Is  not  the  age  worthy  of  the  best  effort  of  the  army  of  the 
supernatural  ?  The  age,  once  conquered  to  Christ,  will  harness 
to  his  chariot  its  forces,  and  dedicate  to  His  service  its  power- 
ful ambitions — and  then,  as  never  before,  will  Christ  reign, 
the  Supreme  Master  of  humanity's  highest  evolutions. 

We  cannot  but  love  the  age  for  its  conquests  and  its  aspira- 
tions, and  should  we  not,  for  its  sake,  work  to  our  utmost  to 
bring  to  it  that  which  alone  will  satisfy  all  its  longings,  that 
which  will  fitly  crown  all  its  labors — the  flood  of  supernal  life 
from  God's  own  skies,  and,  in  this  manner,  make  it  the  truly 
beloved,  not  of  men  only,  but  of  God  also,  and  His  angels! 

A  superficial  observer  will  say  that  the  age  is  hardened  to 
appeals  from  the  supernatural,  that  efforts  to  lift  it  above 
matter  must  needs  be  vain,  and  indolence  and  cowardice  on 
our  part  will  take  pretext  from  such  language  to  withdraw 
in  despair  within  our  tents  and  leave  the  field  to  unbelief  and 
moral  misery.  They  who  speak  or  act  in  this  manner  mis- 
judge and  calumniate  the  age.  The  age  is,  indeed,  often 
wrong,  for  it  is  not  wisely  directed.  But  sound  it  to  the  very 
core.  Study  it  in  the  essential  elements  of  its  ebullitions  of 
life — and  you  must  confess  that  it  loves  truth  and  loves  good- 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  75 

ness,  covets  the  glory  of  doing  great  and  noble  things.  Let 
the  religion  of  Christ  be  made  known  to  it,  in  all  its  power 
and  loveliness,  and  the  age  will  bow  before  it  and  will  rec- 
ognize in  it  that  which  it  needs,  and  which  it  has  been  seeking, 
even  in  its  wanderings  and  its  mistakes. 

What  is  it,  then,  that  is  needed  to  bring  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury into  the  arms  of  Christ?  What  is  it  that  is  needed?  A 
faithful  priesthood  and  a  faithful  laity. 

Do  I  call  for  a  new  priesthood?  By  no  means.  I  call  for 
the  old  priesthood — the  priesthood  of  the  first  Apostles,  who, 
going  forth  from  the  Master's  presence,  won  quickly  into  alle- 
giance to  Him  legions  of  disciples  throughout  the  Roman 
Empire  and  carried  His  cross  far  beyond  frontiers  which 
Roman  eagles  had  never  passed  over — the  priesthood  of  Remi, 
Patrick,  Augustine,  Boniface,  who  built  up,  so  strong  and  en- 
during, the  foundations  of  modern  Christendom  and  modern 
civilization — the  priesthood  of  Ferrer,  Xavier,  de  Paul  and 
De  Sales,  whose  fiery  zeal  renewed  the  faith  and  the  charity 
of  whole  provinces  and  nations.  If,  as  this  priesthood,  saintly, 
learned  and  earnest,  appears  to  us  as  new — new  in  its  ardor, 
new  in  its  methods  of  work,  new  in  its  courage,  it  is  because 
we  have  in  our  times  fallen  below  the  true  type  of  the  priest- 
hood, and  forgotten  the  best  traditions  of  our  fathers;  it  is 
because  our  present  priesthood  no  longer  possesses  the  noble 
attributes  with  which  Christ  willed  the  priesthood  of  all  ages 
to  be  ceaselessly  endowed.  O  Christ,  we  pray  Thee,  enrich  us 
with  the  old  priesthood,  the  priesthood  of  the  saints. 

Faithful  laity,  do  your  part,  not  only  in  building  up  the 
priesthood,  through  which  Christ's  graces  flow  directly  upon 
souls,  but  also  in  contributing  by  your  own  manner  of  living 
to  the  work  of  the  priesthood.  You,  too,  can  present  to  the 
world  moral  miracles — miracles  of  Christian  virtue.  You,  too, 
can  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ,  by  word  even,  but  especially 
by  giving  practical  demonstration  of  the  power  of  the  gospel 
to  regenerate  and  sanctify  men. 

You  can  easily  divine  why  I  chose  as  the  subject  of  my 
discourse  the  priesthood  of  Christ's  Church.  It  is  that  the 
festivities  amid  which  we  are  rejoicing  put  vividly  before  us 
the  priesthood,  such  as  we  wish  to  see  it  in  America,  in  the 
twentieth  century. 


7<5  Episcopal  Silver  Jubilee 

Right  Reverend  Bishop  Spalding,  I  speak  not  to  praise  or 
flatter  you;  praise  or  flattery  you  would  not  allow.  I  speak 
for  the  honor  of  our  common  priesthood,  for  the  edification  of 
the  children  of  the  Church. 

I  am  entitled  to  speak.  Over  many  years  our  friendship 
has  been  extended.  It  has  been  such  that  I  know  you  well — 
as  few  others  could  have  known  you.  Often  we  have  met  in 
converse;  often  soul  was  poured  into  soul,  and  heart  revealed 
to  heart.  Your  manner  of  life,  your  priestly  and  episcopal 
works  have  been  constantly  before  my  eyes.  To-night  I  speak 
aloud  what  have  been  always  the  conviction  of  my  mind — you 
have  been  the  true  priest,  the  true  bishop. 

Twenty-five  years  in  the  episcopate,  twelve  or  more  years 
previously  spent  in  the  priesthood — without  stain  or  blemish — 
this,  my  brethren,  is  what  we  praise  to-day;  this  is  what  we 
are  proud  to  extol.  Your  bishop's  priesthood  is  a  saintly 
priesthood.  It  is  pre-eminently,  too,  a  learned  priesthood.  In 
an  unusual  degree  has  knowledge  adorned  his  brow;  in  an 
unusual  degree  he  has  been  willing  and  able  to  defend  God's 
Church  with  eloquent  tongue  and  polished  pen.  The  whole 
priestly  body  in  America  are  grateful  to  Bishop  Spalding  for 
the  intellectual  glory  which  his  talents  and  his  assiduity  in 
making  them  bear  fruit  have  cast  upon  it.  And  has  not  his 
priesthood  been  marked  by  exemplary  zeal  ?  The  first  bishop 
of  the  diocese  of  Peoria,  he  offers  it  to-day  to  the  Church  of 
America  a  model  diocese,  a  diocese  rich  in  institutions  of 
learning  and  of  charity,  rich  in  the  virtues  of  its  clergy,  rich  in 
the  treasures  of  faith  and  of  devotion  that  characterize  its  laity. 
And  far  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  diocese,  throughout  the 
whole  land,  wherever  work  was  to  be  done  for  God  or  for 
humanity,  Bishop  Spalding  has  gone  forth  with  powerful  word 
and  act  to  serve  the  cause  of  truth  and  virtue.  The  whole 
Church  of  America  owes  to  Bishop  Spalding  a  singular  debt 
of  gratitude ;  and  to  pay  this  debt  bishops  and,,  priests  have 
congregated  to-day  in  Peoria  from  all  parts,  even  the  most 
remote,  of  the  continent. 

And  who,  as  much  as  the  bishop  of  Peoria,  has  worked  to 
endow  America  with  a  worthy  priesthood  ?  The  Catholic  Uni- 
versity is  the  pride,  as  it  is  the  hope,  of  the  American  Church. 


John  Lancaster  Spalding  77 

And  the  Catholic  University  was  born  of  his  intelligent  under- 
standing of  the  needs  of  the  times  and  his  zeal  in  meeting 
those  needs.  He  is  the  founder  of  the  university,  and  since 
its  beginnings  he  has  been  its  vigilant  guardian  and  its  sturdy 
defender.  As  it  grows  in  strength  and  usefulness,  so  will  the 
glory  of  the  name  of  Bishop  Spalding  and  the  debt  of  gratitude 
which  America  owes  to  him. 

Bishop  Spalding,  ad  multos  annos.  The  silver  jubilee  of 
your  episcopate  finds  you  in  the  prime  of  manhood,  rich  in 
physical  health,  rich  in  the  freshness  of  matured  thought  and 
zeal.  Many  coming  years  be  with  us ;  for  many  coming  years 
labor  for  us.  The  jubilee  celebration  is  the  morning  of  a  new 
career,  more  illustrious  and  more  fruitful  than  that  which 
closes.  We  are  sure  you  will  respond  diligently  and  ener- 
getically to  the  opportunities  that  open  before  you.  Hence 
I  rejoice  this  evening;  hence  the  priests  and  the  laity  of  the 
diocese  of  Peoria  rejoice  with  me ;  hence  priests  and  Catholic 
people  of  all  America  rejoice  with  us  and  pray  to  heaven  with 
us — ad  multos  annos. 


B.S732S  C001 

SOUVENIR  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  SILVER  JUBILEE 


